


Vampire knights

by Actually_Athena



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Bromance, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, LIKE A LOT OF ANGST, LOT OF BROMANCE, M/M, Magic Reveal, Quest, Set After Season 3, Vampire Arthur, Whump, blood-drinking, but before season 4, but it suits in the timeline, damn Merlin back at it again with the selfsacrificing, drink the blood or go insane, guilty arthur and knights, lot of merlin whump, lot of whump, ultimatum, vampire, vampire knights, well sort off more like half-vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2018-07-14 11:25:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 37,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7169114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Actually_Athena/pseuds/Actually_Athena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is a normal day in Camelot. Arthur has been regent for a while now and everything is at peace. That is until they discover several bodies. All the victims are drained from their blood, but the only wounds are two little ones in their necks. Arthur and the knights (and Merlin of course) decide to follow a track that might lead them to the culprits.<br/>But all might not be what it looks like. What if it is all a trap? What if they are severly underestimating their enemy? When all goes to hell, the lifes and sanity of Arthur and the knights come to rest on Merlin's shoulders. And the sacrifices he has to make to keep his friends safe are piling up in an never ending tower, however much the knights try to stop them. Eventually they are all wondering how the hell he is still alive.</p><p>Arthur really should have brought the whole army. Or at least left Merlin home.</p><p>Basically a lot of whump and arthur and the knights getting their heads out of their arses and realise what Merlin means to them (finally).</p><p>Rated T cause of the lot of whump</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is not the first fanfic i am writing for the Melrin fandom (it is the second) but it is the first i will post on AO3. Sadly, I don't have a beta. And I'm a 16 year old Dutch girl, so sorry for the grammar mistakes. Feel free to attend me to them so I can correct them. I really want to continue this story and I promise that I will. However, as I already mentioned before, I am also working on other stuff so if you want this to be updated fast, please comment or leave kudos. They really help my motivation and you'll have a next chapter sooner. I also like to hear it if you think i can do something better, so feel free to comment that too. This is of course assuming that anybody will actually read this. Anyway, enjoy the story!

It had all started in the throne room. It was that day of the week again in which all the citizens could come for the king (or in this case, the regent) and ask help for their problems. Mostly it was nothing interesting, neighbours arguing over a chicken for example. Uther had always left this things for Arthur, claiming he had better things to do than listen to the peasants. Arthur always thought it was important that the citizens knew they could always come to him wiht their problems, so when he became prince regent he continued doing it, and the people were grateful for his listening ear.

They were just listening to two women who accused the eachother of having stealed their frying pan and Merlin was bored. He wished something would happen. 

He really should know better than to wish that.

Just when Arthur was about say his decision, screaming could be heard along the hall. Arthur went rigid and Merlin could see that he was prepared for everything that would come.

He didn’t have to wait long, because soon after the shouting a guard ran in. He stopped in front of the throne and doubled over, trying to catch his breath. He must have run all the way from the lower town.

“What is the meaning of this” Arthur said and he sounded so regal, so kinglike at that moment, that Merlin couldn’t help but feel proud at him. He had grown so much from the prat he was when Merlin met him.

“A body, sire” said the guard, doing his ultimate best to sound as respectful as possible while at the same time panting like a exhausted horse. He swallowed a few times until he was able to speak propperly. Arthur was waitning impatiently, already half of his throne. “Who’s body? What happened?”

“A women sire” the guard said, while bowing deeply. “A few children saw her laying dead in an alley, sire.”

Arthur nodded and relaxed, this was something he knew how to deal with, but the guard was not ready yet. He frowned while he continued.

“Sire, there is something strange about the body.” Arthur froze again. “She is extremely pale and withered. More than normal, i mean.” The guard paused and licked is lips, as if he was nervous to continue. “Sire, she looks like there is no blood left in her veins, but there is no blood around her. The only wound on her were two little wounds on her neck, but those could never have been fatal” A calculated look came in Arthurs eyes. Merlin spared a quick look at Agravaine, but he looked jsut as surprised as the rest. Not the work of Morgana then, although he shouldn’t exclude any possibility. But even if it wasn’t Morgana, it was no doubt magic.

He groaned. He really should watch out what to wish for.

“Very well” Arthur turned to the guard. “You have done well and are dismissed. Everybody is dismissed. Any problems which are not a situation of life and death can wait till next week. Sir Leon, sir Gwaine, sir Percival, sir Lancelot, sir Elyan and Gaius will come with me.”

The people mumbled worried when they left the room, Merlin quickly following his master. The guard looked relieved that he could leave this in the hand of the regent now.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Just as the guard said, my lord. The poor woman is completely drained of her blood. But other than this two little wounds on her neck, there is no indication of a wound through which the blood could have left her. I will take her with me for a more thoroughly examination of course, but I doubt that I will find something else.” Arthur listened intently to Gaius. When the old man was finished he nodded that he understood and focussed on his second in command, who was running to him.

When Leon arrived he gave the man a few moments to catch his breath. “Nobody has seen it happen, sire. Although there is a man who saw somebody walk into the alley very soon after the victim. He said that it was too dark to see him completely, but he did saw a few things. He said that it was without a doubt a man. He was wearing completely black clothes, which made it hard to see him. According to the man his skin was so pale he looked more death than alive, and there were two sharp things portruding from the corners of his mouth. He wasn’t sure what they were, for he only saw him in a flash before the man ran into the alley. He couldn’t see anything else because the man wore a black cape and he ran past so quickly. Although he did ad that he had never saw anybody running so fast.”

Arthur listened intently and nodded to himself. It wasn’t much but it was definitely something. He should be grateful for what he got. But he couldn’t help but be a little angry at the man that he didn’t report this the moment he saw it. But he guessed that that would be asking too much. The man was probably scared to get involved in something he didn’t wanted to be involved in.

Just when Arthur was about to answer his second in command, his attention got caught by a “sire!”. He turned around to see Elyan running towards him, a worried expression on his face. It was obvious that he had important but bad news to deliver. Elyan came to a stop in front of him, panting.

“Sire, another one!” Arthur frowns in confusion. “Another what?” Elyan managed to catch his breath and when he looked up, Arthur was shocked to see fear in his eyes. Not much and carefully hidden, but definitely there. “Another body sire.” Arthur went rigid when he heard that. “An elder man. exactly the same circumstances. He looks completely drained and.” Elyan gulped. “and he has the exact same puncture wounds in his neck as that woman.” Arthur’s thoughts whirled in his head like a maelstrom while he tried to put this into the picture. But before he has the chance to think too long about it he hears Percival calling him. He looked at the strong knight approaching him. When he saw his face his heart sank for he already knew what the knight was going to say. “There is another one, isn’t there?” Percival looked quite pale and nodded. When he spoke, his voice was raw. “A child. I think she is ... was around five or six” 

Arthur closed his eyes trying to progress this. He was used to seeing dead people, he even killed quite a lot by himself. But it always hurted more when it was one of his citizens, especially children. They always gave him the feeling like he failed them. He was supposed to protect them. This would all have been bad enough, but then there was the way they were killed. The woman barely looked human. Her skin was stone hard, ragged and had fallen in - You could clearly see the contours of her skull. Arthur didn’t doubt that her skin would fall apart is he so much as touched her. Call him a coward as much as you like, Arthur definitely didn’t wanted to see the corpse of the child.

“Princess!” Arthur saw Gwaine jogging to their group and got caught in a strange feeling of deja vu. One look on Gwaine’s face and he already knew what the rough knight was going to say. “Who is it?” Gwaine looked at him grimly while he answered.  
“Another young woman. Only this one was heavily pregnant” Arthur sighed and closed his eyes. He expected something like that, but it still shocked him. 

He looked around at his knights before turning his gaze to where Merlin and a guard were busy loading the dead woman on a cart under the supervising eye of Gaius. Merlin quickly snapped his head back to the body, but Arthur knew that he had been listening intently to their conversation. 

His servant looked like he was going to be sick, Arthur could empathize with that.  
Whatever monster did this, it had killed four - five if you counted the unborn baby - innocent citizens.

A wave of anger and protectiveness washed over him, he would show the culprits what happened when you messed with the people of Camelot. He is the prince, for gods sake! And NO ONE messed with him! he would make sure of that. He swore to himself that no one else would die such a horrible dead. He would make sure of that too.

“Sire!” Arthur is torn out of his thoughts by Lancelot. And while he sees the noble knight running towards him, his heart drops. No, please no. Not another victim, please. He feels the knights and Merlin tense and knows that they are thinking the same thing. When Lancelot arrives, panting heavily, everybody is looking at him with trepidation. They all wait impatiently for Lancelot to catch his breath, until Gwaine couldn’t hold it anymore and all but screamed: “Well, who is it?”

Lancelot looks up at that, a strange expression on his face and opens his mouth to answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was chapter 1.  
> What did you think?  
> I really hope you liked it.  
> Once again, I have no beta.  
> So if you're interested in the job I would be immensely greatful.  
> See you next time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG I got like, four comments and sixteen kudos on the last chapter. Which are four comments and sixteen kudos more than i expected.  
> I was orginally planning on not writing for three weeks.  
> You see, I have a testweek I got to study for, and I don't want to mess that up.  
> But then you guys got all enthousiastic.  
> So now I have written a little bit every day. Just half an hour each day and in a week: voilá, a new chapter.  
> I hope you guys like it.  
> Btw, I still don't have a beta so there might be some grammar mistakes.  
> Feel free to point them out.

“What? What do you mean Gwaine?” Lancelot looked very confused but shook his head and faced his prince again. “sire I need to tell you something important, I found something that might lead us to the culprits.”

At Lancelots reply Arthur allows himself himself to feel hope. There was a track, and when there was a track then camelots best hunters could follow it. They would find the monster - Person or monster, Arthur isn’t sure which one it is yet - who did this, and they would make them pay. He looks at all his knights in turn and sees the same hope and determination he feels. They are going to beat this monster (or man, whatever). The hunt had begun.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Merlin sighed while he stretched his back. He ached all over. The endless riding was what he hated the most on this kind of quests. They would ride nonstop from the moment the sun came up, till the sun was far under. Merlin already knew what would happen the moments they stopped.

All the knights would lie down and rest of a long day riding and Merlin would water and brush the horses, set up camp, fill the waterskins, collect firewood, make a fire and cook, and while the knights eat he has to serve them, when they are done he would clean everything and THEN he could finally eat. That was, of course, assuming the knights didn’t eat everything. Which rarely happened, mostly he had to sleep on an empty stomach. Then because he was eating and cleaning, he wasn’t there when the knights made the guardscheme and he was stuck with the middlest watch, which basically meant the lest sleep. 

In the morning he had to wake long before dawn to build off camp, make sure the horses are ready, fill the waterskinns AGAIN, collect firewood, make a fire and make breakfast. And after he woke the knights and they started on their breakfast he had to clear away the bedrolls. After that they would go, leaving Merlin without time to break fast.

That was of course assuming that there weren’t any special occasions. For example: a knight who had gotten wounded, or a horse who walked with a limp, or when the horses had walked through the mud and needed cleaning, or an armour that was broken/filthy, a piece af a saddle that needed repairing, a sword that needed sharpening etcetera. There barely was a night withour one of these special occasions. Tonight for example, he needed to read that whole damn book before being allowed to sleep.

Forget what he said, the riding is by FAR not the worst part of the quests.

But it could be worse, they could have decided not to take him. It didn’t matter how much he hated going on these quest, not going and being worried 24/7 was far worse.

A shout from Elyan tore Merlin out of his thoughts. He saw the dark skinned knight chrouching on the floor, a piece of black linen in his hand, he had found another track. Merlin frowned, this was too easy. Since they left the city they had been following a trail. Every time they didn’t knew where to go next another track would be found. Merlin was sure there was a trap, the tracks were too easy to find, given that they were tracing a lone man who managed to kill four people without being noticed. It was suspicious.

Of course he had tried to tell Arthur that it was a trap but sir Obvious and his knights were too keen to catch their prey to listen to a mere servant such as himself. they thought it was because they were amazing hunters, while Merlin couldn’t see how a creature that managed to stay hidden for thirty years could now be so caeless to leave all these tracks. Well, damn them, if they got into trouble because they didn’t listen Merlin was not going to help them.

Of course that was just talking. He knew he would to anything to keep them save. But that didn’t stop him from sulking.

He just KNEW he would have to save the stupid noble arses, he had already known since he first arrived by the body of the woman. He thought back to that morning, when he first fell something was wrong.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as Merlin had arrived by the body of the woman, he could feel the dark magic lingering there. The poor woman was soaked with it, like it replaced her blood. It made Merlin feel nauseated.

When Arthur heard of the track Lancelot had found he immediately wanted to leave to track down the bloody bastard who did this - pun not intended. But the combined arguments of Merlin and Gaius made him wait long enoug for Merlin to prepare horses and everything for a extended period and for Gaius to do some research to what could have caused the kills. 

When Merlin had everything prepared and the knights were waiting in the courtjard for their prince, said prince and his court physician came walking to them. They both wore worried looks on their faces. The knights and Merlin walked to them. When they met, the prince spoke up. 

“Gaius found out what kind of creature did this” after which he motioned to the old man to speak.

“I indeed did sire, it looks like we’re dealing with a vampire.” Gaius looked worried but when Melrin looked around he only saw just as blank faces as his own must look like. “uhm, whats a vampire?” asked Elyan. Gaius sighed.

“I do not think it strange that you didn’t heard of them, after all there are very few of them left.”

Leon frowned. “what do you mean ‘left’?”

“There used to be hundreds of them. They’re humans but not quite, they’re undead”

“Huh?” said Gwaine “How can somebody be undead?”

“If you drink blood of a vampire, you get affected by it. It turns you into a sort of half-vampire. Then, when you die, you become a real one.”

“So basically vampires are dead, but still walking and talking like a normal human being? Are they immortal?” Merlin asked.

“They’re not really ‘normal human beings’ Merlin and they are definately not immortal. They might still be themselves, but they don’t have a heartbeat and it is said that their skin is ice cold. Like I said, they’re undead. But in a way, yes I think you could say that they are immortal. Their senses are a lot stronger than humans. They are also a lot stronger and faster than humans, so I guess there are advantages to being a vampire. But because of the nature of their situation, they are very sensitive to the sun, there is very little change you will find them during daytime.”

The knights nodded at this, taking in all the information that could help. “But how are you so sure a vampire did this?” Lancelot asked.

“Because of the circumstances of the deads. You see, there is a heavy price to not dying. To continue his existence, a vampire needs to drink blood, human blood.”

There was a heavy silence while everybody tried to ingest that information. They were all shocked at this revelation and what it meant. The poor victims didn’t bleed out, they had been drained from their blood, their blood was consumed. It was disgusting and it took all Merlin’s effort to not vomit. For some unexplainable reason Gaius took their silence as them wanting more information of the subject. Which was NOT the case.

“Remeber the witness said he saw something flashing in the corners of their mouth. Those are their fangs, they are very long and sharp, designed to bite in the sensitive skin of ones neck. When they bite a person, the poison on their fangs causes the victim to go slack, thet way it will be easier for them to drink.” 

Every now and then they will feel a deep hunger which makes them unable to think of everything apart from blood. If they don’t give in, they’ll turn insane, they’ll turn into monsters thinking about nothing but blood, I think that might be what happened to this one, prompting it to kill those poor people. Although it is way too many blood for even a vampire. Maybe there are more, but that is very unlikely, since they are almost extinct. But then again, I didn’t thought there was even one alive, there could just as well be more. 

There used to be an entire civilization of them, back before even Uther was king, I’m not sure what exactly happened that killed almost every one of them, the books are very vague about that. Quite possibly they had a civil war. But at least the fact that they used to be so common prompted a lot of writers to write about them.”

He handed a big book to Merlin, who took it warily. The book was old and heavy. Merlin could just see patterns on the leather which had probably looked pretty when the book was made, but were now vague and barely visible. There was written ‘everything about vampires, from their cultures to the ways to kill them’ in gracefull silvercolored letters on the cover. Merlin opened the book and started to browse through pages full of pictures and writing about vampires. Some of the pictures made him want to vomit all over again. So to make sure he didn’t accidentally emptied his stomach on his guardian, he closed the book quickly. Gaius just kept talking like his ward wasn’t about to puke all over him.

“In this book you’ll find everything about vampires that there is to know. And given that one of the two people who wrote it was a vampire himself I think you can be pretty sure it is accurate.I would have liked to tell you guys more about them but since you are so keen to leave as soon as possible, I’ll just send this book with you, so you can read it tonight.”

Merlin groaned because he already knew that sir royal prat was just gonna assume he had read it in the morning and wouldn’t even consider helping him read it. The dollophead wasn’t going to allow him to sleep until he read the entire book and given how big it was, he wasn’t in for much sleep tonight. The clotpole.

Wow Merlin just realised he had three nicknames he used only for Arthur of which two of them he invented himself.

Damn, Arthur had no idea how privileged he was.

He suddenly noticed all the knights climbing their horses. He quickly putted the book in his saddle bag and climbed his horse. They rode out of Camelot, following the trail Lancelot found.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thats basically how they ended up here, far away from civilization in a dark and wild part of the darkling woods that used to be unknown to them, while the sun was sinking behind the horizon with Leon finding another track just when they didn’t knew which way to turn anymore - wow what a coincidence - and Merlin was starting to feel more twitchy every second. Nothing had happened all day, but that just confinced Merlin that something would definitely happen and he wouldn’t allow his guard to fall for even a second. After all, didn’t Gaius said that vampires were more active during the night?

“MERLIN!”

The man in question jerked up when he was puled out of his thoughts by his master calling him irritated. By the look he was throwing him he had called him a few times before he responded.

“Have you been sleeping again? You lazy idiot. Get of your arse and set up camp. We’re stopping for the nights.”

‘Wouldn’t allow his guard down’, yeah right. Nice job Merlin, great protector indeed.

He sighed while he dismounted his horse and started setting up camp.

Ah well, maybe he was just getting paranoid and nothing would happen tonight at all. After all, there would always be a knight on guard and surely the vampire wouldn’t attack them if they were with six of Camelots best trained knights. He could relax a bit.

Not entirely of course, he never could do that. But a bit.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zanobi smiled as he looked at the prince and his knights sitting down while the servantboy rushed about to set up camp and make food. He kept kneeling in the bushes, not moving, not even to breath, while he waited for his change. He watched while the serving boy went through all his chores and finally started making a stew for dinner. His smile grew as he realised exactly how he was going to do this. It was time to give that prince a glimpse of who exactly they were dealing with. Getting his knife out of his belt he begun with his plan.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey here I am again, hope you missed me.  
> It took me a while longer this time because of testweek and everything.  
> But at last, here it is.
> 
> kolis10 asked me the last time why Merlin said that there hasn't been spotted a vampire in like 30 years. She wondered where that number came from and I thought that more of you might wonder that. So I decided to post my answer here for others who might wondered:
> 
> To be honest, it is just a random number.  
> I imagined that the whole vampire civilazation killed itself even before Uther but there are always survivors. I just imagined that after that a few vampires must have been spotted, since they can't go too far from humans because they need their blood. But Gaius thought that they were extinct so it was also necessary that nobody saw one for a long time, hence I came with 30 years. It seemed like a good number that is somewhere in the middle of the events.
> 
> So all I have left to say is: enjoy the chapter and please leave kudos and comments.  
> I'll go back to learning for my Greektest of tomorrow of which I don't even know half of the stuff we had to learn  
> *sobs in a corner*  
> byeeee

Merlin stirred the stew lazily. Damn, he was really tired, with all the stress and riding and everything. But he could deal with it, after all, he has had FAR worse. He yawned and the fleeting thought crossed his mind that he might fall asleep while stirring the stew. Knowing his luck he would fall in the fire and burn alive, Arthur would never let him live that down.

Suddenly he heard a creaking sound and he spinned around just in time to see the branch to which Percival and Gwaine had tied their horses break. Glad to have some distraction from falling asleep he quickly stood up and walked over to the horses. Luckily they weren’t scared away from the sound and movement. Then he would also have to go after them. As it was he just had to walk over to them and tie them to a new branch.

While he walked past the knights, who were setting up a guardscheme to the horses he couldn’t help but glance around. That nervous feeling he had the entire day was back and he felt really twitchy. He reaches the horses and start to tie them to a branch, while he looks around. He has to redo the knot three times because he is so distracted, luckely the horses didn’t walk away.

Suddenly he sees a sudden movement out of the corner of his eye, he turns around so quickly he is lucky that he didn’t broke his neck and looks intently at the campsite. 

There is nothing there.

Merlin lets out a shaky laugh as he turnes back to the horses. God, he is really getting paranoid. He really needs to calm down. There is nothing wrong, for fuck’s sake! Ignoring the feeling in his gut that tells him that there is in fact definitely something wrong, he quickly ties the second horse to the branch and walks back to the fire. While he is stirring the stew he gets the feeling that something wrong is happening right in front of him, but when he looks up there is nothing.

Deciding to ignore his feelings for the rest of the night he distractedly continues stirring the stew.

He doesn’t notice the red streaks that gradually disappear when his stirring causes it to get absorbed by the stew. And when his tired eyes finally look down, the red has been absorbed completely and nothing looks wrong.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Merlin!”

The man in question’s head snaps up as his master’s call. Did he really fell asleep while stirring the stew? God he was so tired and he wouldn’t sleep for hours because he still had to read that goddamn book. Maybe he would use some magic on himself later, so he could stay awake long enough. But first he needed to find out what his royal prattishness wanted. So he turned around and looked at him questioningly.

“Stop lazing around and hurry with that stew. We’re hungry.” 

“It’s almost done, sire”

The knights all came to sit around the fire and looked longlingly at the food. Only now did Merlin realise that he was quite hungry himself. Correction, he was starving. They didn’t stop so he hadn’t ate since breakfast. Wow, he must be really tired if he didn’t even noticed this hunger.

When the stew was finally ready and Merlin got it out of the fire, he had a hard time not laughing at the faces of the knights. He was obviously not the only hungry one. They all held there bowls ready and looked so eager that they looked like a bunch of four year olds waiting with anticipation till their mama had picked a candy out of the jar, unpatience for the sweet that they were about to get. It looked quite ridiculous on the faces of the hardened fighters and he had to remind himself that this men were the greatest warriors in the whole of Camelot.

He filled their bowls and watched fondly while they started breathing in the food, because there was really no other way to call the speed at which they were eating. By the time he had filled all their cups, Gwaine and Percival were already finished and the others followed soon.

“Aahhh, that was just what I needed. Nobody makes as good a stew as you do mate” exclaimed the fun-loving knight.

“I agree wholeheartedly” Percival chimed in. Merlin felt himself fill up with pride, he may never ask for a ‘thanks’ or a ‘good job’, he really did love it when somebody said it anyway. But the feeling washed away as soon as he saw the smirk on Gwaine’s face.

Oh god, he really wasn’t going to like this.

“In fact” exclaimed the knight merrily “I think I would like another bowl.” The knight gave Merlin his best innocent look. Merlin didn’t believe it for a second. He sighed because there was really no way around it. He may consider these man his friends, but they were still knights and he was a servant.

So he did nothing when he saw Gwaine take another bowl. Maybe there was still some left. The hope that he was going to have something to eat was smashed in the ground when the knights realised what Gwaine was doing and all started joining the ‘let’s harass Merlin’ club.

“Oh yeah, it is delicious!”

“I have never eaten something so wonderfull before!”

“I wish I could eat this everyday!”

“God I would really like some more too!”

Merlin had to admit that it was a little bit funny to see the knights act so exaggerating, being way louder than was necessary while they praised his food. But the fun left quickly when the servant had to watch while they ate all the food that was left in the pot.

It was an usual joke between him and the knights and he was used to it, really. But he was so hungry tonight and way to tired to deal with their childishness. He plasted and amused grin on his face anyway. No need to bother them with his problems. And anyway, he was planning on using an energyimproving spell during the cleaning of the dishes and it would be a little suspicious if he acted exhausted now and came back merrily and rested later.

When Gwaine started to lick out the pot his smile turned into a real one because really, they were acting ridiculous. Once again, Merlin found himself compare the knights to a group four year olds and he started to chuckle merrily. When Arthur raised his eyebrow in a clear question what he was thinking and laughing about, Merlin decided to ignore it. After all, there was no need in getting himself the shitload of chores he would surely get if he told them what he had compared them too.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_CHAPTER THREE: HALF-VAMPIRE OR DEMI-VAMPIRE_

_When a human drinks the blood of a vampire, he changes in a half-vampire, also called demi-vampire. It means that, comes the person in question to die, he or she willl change in a vampire. (The rituals that come with the reborn of a vampire will be ecplained in more detail in chapter two, paragraph four). Being a vampire has a lot of advantages. A vampire is stronger and faster, he also has stronger senses and the power to heal himself at will rather quickly (considering he has enough blood at the moment), making it almost impossible to kill one._

_These features can also be found in hals-vampires, although less expanded. Which ones and the amout of and the strength of these features the half-vampire possesses is diffrent by every vampire, but there is always something at least. However, just as with vampires, demi-vampires need to pay a price for these advantages in the form of human blood._

_It is necessary for the half-vampire to drink human blood on his first night before the sun comes up. Otherwise, the hunger wil give the vampire The Insanity. After the first night a (half-)vampire needs to drink human blood regular (at which times depend of the quality of the blood, the amount of blood drinken and various other factors (more about these at paragraph five)). The older the vampire gets, the lesser the hunger shows up, until it reaches a point at which it comes regular. Most vampires only need to drink once a week, but this can vary for each vampire._

_Normal vampires are almost always awake at night and sleep at the day, this is for various reasons, such as a sensitivity for the sun and the natural clock of a vampire. Half-vampires are less influenced by these factors and are capable of staying awake at daytime. However, they will find that their body’s already prefer nighttime and staying up all day will come with consequenses such as a heavily sunburn, itching skin, uncoördinate moves and extreme exhaustion._

_The path from your turning till your rebirth is a hard one. The symptoms are uncontrollably at first and take a while to get used to. It is said that the blood of a warlock can help with that. It stand in the vampire community without doubt that the blood of a warlock is the best of quality. For it is said to make you feel like something the vampires miss the most: it makes you feel alive. It is of course not true, your still very much dead. But a lot of vampires crave the experience of warlock blood, some even travel for millenia along the earth jsut to get a taste of it again. This is however the reason warlocks became so rare, for us vampires craved their blood too much to leave them alone._

_There are rumours goign along that the blood and the magic of a warlock freely given, can ease some of the symptoms. There are stories of a vampire that managed to walk in broad daylight for an hour long after drinking it. The effect of this is however doubtfull. But I think it is save to say that the more power the warlock has and is willing to give, the more change the vampire will have to seduce the symptoms._

_The moment the half-vampire dies and reborns as a real vampire, he is bound to his maker. It is his duty to do as his maker says, in return, it is the duty of the maker to look after them and guide them into the vampire world. This is of course not necessary and there are vampires who have a deepfunded hatred against their makers. This is, however discommendable as everything that happens to the maker, will happen to the vampire too. So every wound and every illness will be felt by the vampire. And if your maker dies, then so do you. This fate is dodgeable if you manage to kill your maker while still being a half-vampire. This is, however, near to impossible to archieve._

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Merlin sighed. That definitely didn’t sound good. In fact, that sounded very bad. He hadn’t read all and he had yet to come to the chaper which said how you could kill vampires, but what he had already read made it VERY clear that it was almost impossible to kill a vampire. He sighed again while he resigned himself to the whole night of figuring out how to kill it with his magic while preventing the knights from knowing AND coming up with a good coverstory when they would ask how it was killed.

He closed the book when a headache started to come up and closed his eyes for a moment. Even though he had spelled more energy to himself while doing the dishes he was still tired. He couldn’t use the spell again though. The spell used an energy that came out of his unconsiousness, actually all it did was pulling those energy to the surface. But it took a long time for that kind of energy to reload so he couldn’t do it again for a while.

When he opened his eyes again he noticed that all of the knights were already sleeping. A quick glance at the sky told him it was in fact not his turn to keep watch yet. In fact, it was still quite early in the night. Also the knights lay a little weird, like they had fallen asleep on the spot. None of them layed on their bedrolls.

Immediately he turned rigid and frantically scanned his surroundings while only moving his eyes. That was a trick he had catched up from the knights, never let your enemy know you know they are there. He forced himself to stand calmly instead of hasty as his instincts were trying to make him do. Under the pretence of getting his waterskin he turned around and let his eyes roam the forest. But there was nothing there.

When he heard a wheezing sound he spinned around quickly and looked around. But there wasn’t somebody behind him like he thought. For a moment he just looked around trying to determine where the sound was coming from. It was only when he heard more wheezing that he realised that it were the knights. He quickly knelt by Arthur, who was the closed to him, and looked him over. His skin was pale and he was sweating deliriously. His breath came in short wheezing sounds, like he could barely manage to breath at all. 

Merlin tried a few heeling spells that came in his mind but none worked. He started to get desperate when the weezing worsened and none of his spells had any effect. He kept trying it though, pouring his magic into Arthur while muttering to him, hoping to wake him up.Merlin didn’t even realised if it was himself or Arthur that he was trying to comfort. 

“Come on, you dollophead. What kind of trouble did you got yourself into this time? You really are uncapable of taking care of yourself, aren’t you? I have to do anything. Now wake up you clotpole. Your gonna be alright. Come on, just wake up.”

Suddenly Arthur and the knights started to convulse. Spasms rocking his body. Merlin went in fullblown panic now. He had really not the faintest idea of what to do. He tried to keep Arthur down, but failed dramatically. Suddenly he heard a scream. He whipped his head around and saw that Gwaine was screaming. 

It didnt took long for the other knights to join him.

Merlin felt hot tears running down his cheek while he desperately tried to keep Arthur down, he was screaming too at this point. Hoping against hope that the bastard who did this was still around and could hear him.

“PLEASE! STOP! STOP THIS PLEASE! SOMEBODY HELP THEM, I’LL DO ANYTHING! JUST PLEASE LEAVE THEM ALONE! MAKE IT STOP! I’LL DO ANYTHING WHAT YOU WANT JUST PLEASE LET THEM BE!”

His pleading fell to deaf ears and nobody heard him. Or maybe they did but decided against helping him. He was starting to get really pissed.

“DAMNIT JUST HELP ME YOU BLOODY BASTARD! STOP IT NOW! STOP IT! I’LL MAKE YOU REGRET IT _IF YOU DON’T STOP THIS NOW!_ ”

Suddenly the screaming and convulsing stopped and Arthur went linp in his arms. But Melrin knew that this was not because of sombody hearing him. He felt tears streaming down his cheek once again while he shakingly lifted his hand and slowly brought it to his prince’s neck.

“P-Please don’t b-be dead. D-Don’t d-die on me. Not n-now. Not ever. Don’t m-make m-me bury you p-please. Just p-please d-don’t be dead.”

The moment Merlin touched Arthurs neck the man in question bolted upright. Merlin let out a high-pitched scream (of which he later would deny that it ever came out of his mouth) and scrambled backwards. Not prepared for the sudden movement. Quicky he crawled back to the stif form that was his prince, not moving at all. He vaguely noticed the knights sitting in a similar position. 

He scrambled around his prince and looked at his face. He gasped and once again scrambled back, with his bakc to the fire this time.

Arthur was staring out in front of him, his face pale and his eyes a bloody red, two long fangs stuck out of the corners of his mouth. A quick glance around confirmed his suspicions of the knights being in a similar state. With a sinking feeling in his gut, Merlin realised just what exactly was happening.

Oh _fuck!_ How the _hell_ was he going to fix this?!

At that moment the red glow of Arthur’s eyes disappeared and he fell forwards, completely limp. A lot of thumps around him told Merlin that the knights had done the same.

_Bloody hell!_

Destiny must really hate him.


	4. chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for being so late.  
> I was very busy and kinda forgot it.  
> Really sorry.  
> I wrote this in two days, and it was a hell to write.  
> Next chapter will finally be the chapter where I wrote this bloody fic for, I can't wait. *maniacal laugh*  
> This fic is gonna be quite longer than I orginally anitcipated. Ah well...  
> I still don't have a beta. Well, I have one, but just like me she is a Dutch teenage girl and can make mistakes too.  
> If any of you is still interested in the job, let me know.  
> Enjoy.

Arthur’s head snapped up when he heard Gwaine groan. The fun-loving knight was the last to get to consiousness, probably because he ate the most stew. Because thats what they all agreed about, it must have been something in the stew. After all, Merlin wasn’t affected. If they weren’t in such a dire situation, Arthur would have teased Merlin, saying it was his fault because he made the stew and allowed something to get in it. He probably would have done it anyway, hadn’t it been for Merlins guilty expression. The boy berated himself enough without Arthur adding to that. 

Also Arthur didn’t want to think about merlin too much, even from the other side of the fire he could smell him. It wasn’t just the smell of the stew or the horses or the sweat to which they probably all smelled. No underneath that Arthur could smell the blood flowing through the boys veins. It smelled like so many things at the same time. Like somebody took the smells of the earth, the sea, the sky and the fire and put them in the servants body. It had something sharp, like lightning and pine needles but also something soft, like all the flowers in the world mixed up. But above all, Merlin smelled like the sun. Arthur didn’t knew how the sun smelled but knew that that was exactly how his servant smelled. The smell reminded him of all the good moments in his life. Training with the knights, riding through the forest, laughing with Merlin. It smelled of all good and it smelled of hope.

And all Arthur’s instincts told him to let his new grown fangs sank in the flesh of his friends delicate skin and to taste that amazing smell. And he found that somewhere deep inside him, he really wanted to do it. 

It made him disgust himself. It was the reason he sat at the other side of the fire and did everything to think of something else. To distract himself, his mind went back to when he woke up.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He had an enormous headache when he woke up and when he sat up he had to stop because of the light feeling in his head. He noticed that he was on his bedroll while he was fairly certain he hadn’t been when he collapsed. He shuddered thinking back to it, the headache and the dizziness that had suddenly come, Gwaine passing out but none of them being able to do anything about it because of the state they were already in at the time. They soon followed Gwaine. It happened so quickly none of them had the change to warn Merlin who for some reason didn’t seem affected, the only thing he had time to think was: _Oh fuck, we’re poisoned._

When he looked around he saw Lancelot and Merlin sitting by the fire, quietly talking, the vampire book still on Merlins lap. He noticed that Lancelot looked quite sickly and wondered if that was what he too looked like. As soon as Merlin noticed him sitting up he rushed over. He went completely in what Arthur called ‘his physician mode’. He placed his hand on Arthur’s forehead and cheeks, looked into his eyes, prodded on random places, started to take his pulse and forced his mouth open to take a look inside. All the while rambling like the idiot he is.

“Sire, are you alright? How do you feel? How’s your hearing and sight? Anything out of ordinary? What about your head, does it hurt? Does it hurt if I touch this? Do you feel dizzy, or anything else?”

Arthur slapped Merlin’s prying hands away. “I’m fine Merlin, just a bit dizzy. What happened?”

Merlin blushed deeply of, Arthur realised, shame and guilt. He raised an eyebrow, curious at what the man would say. So Merlin stammered out the whole story.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Wha’ happ’nd?” Gwaine’s question woke Arthur out of his thoughts and he turned to face his knight. The knight in question sat on his bedroll and looked thoroughly confused.

“Damn, I’v got’a huge hangov’r. Can’t remeb’r a thingy. Wish I did, must have smuggl’d lot of drink. Quite impress’v. Wish I remeb’r’d how”

The others looked amused, Percival even snickered, despite the situation. Trust Gwaine to cheer them all up in such a dire situation. While the knight stood up and walked over, the servant smiled sadly.

“I’m sorry Gwaine, but you don’t have a hangover. There is something far worse going on.”

Gwaine frowned and opened his mouth, obliviously going to ask what was wrong. But he didn’t have to, Merlin seemed determined to get it all out.

“Well, you see, I have no idea how he did it but somehow the vampire must have put some of his blood in the stew. It’s the only explanation since I’m not infected. But since you all ate it, you are, which means that you are half-vampires. And it’s all my fault because I should have noticed and I’m really, really, sorry. Like really sorry. I’ll do anything to fix it, I swear. I’ll find a way, there might be nothing in this book but there are others. And I’m so sorry. I’ll find a way, really, I’ll find a way.”

Merlin was rambling now and Arthur realised with a shock that there were tears glimmering in his eyes. He knew that they were in a dire situation, but he had no idea that it was bad enough for Merlin to cry. Because, in contrast to Arthur calling him a girl al the time, Merlin barely cried. He must feel really, really guilty.

“Merlin, my friend, it is not your fault. None of us paid attention and we shouldn’t have underestimated our enemy like that. We’re all in fault here and you have nothing to be sorry for. And we’ll manage, we always have before. We have been through worse” Trust Lancelot to brighten the situation up. All the knights nodded in agreement. But Merlin only seemed more upset.

“No we haven’t Lancelot. We really haven’t been through worse than this.” The boy had wispered, barely audible but all of them had heard. They fell into a silence, none of them knew quite how to react to that. when the silence (and Merlin’s scent) became unbearable, Leon broke it.

“Well, Merlin, since none of us really know what being a half-vampire means and you have read that book, maybe you could tell us everything of importance and then we will decide what our course of action is going to be” Thank god for Leon’s thoughtfullness. Merlin seemed a lot better now that he had a task with which he could help the knights.

“Right, being a half-vampire basically means that if you die, you become a real vampire. So don’t die, okay. You will probably have some of the symptoms of a vampire too. Like being stronger, faster or having stronger senses. It depends on each person which kind of symptomes you have and the strength of them.”

“So hang on” Elyan interrupted Merlin. “Basically he gave us weapons to fight him? Why would he do that?”

Merlin took a deep breath before he continued. “Because there are two cons of being a half-vamipre that he probably wants to use against you. First there is the fact that he is now your maker, which gives him control over you. As soon as you guys die and become real vampires, you’re bound to him. When anything happens to him, like a wound or something, it will happen to you guys. If he dies, then so do you. This is avoidable if we kill the vampire before one of you guys dies. Which is near to impossible because apparently vampires are quite hard to kill.”

Everybody was silent after that. That was going to quite complicate the whole ‘getting rid of the thread’ thing.

“So basically he hopes to be left alone now, because we can’t kill him. Is that his plan?”

“I’m afraid thats not all Arthur. I have had a lot of time to think about it while you guys were unconsious. I think it was a trap. He probably killed all those people so that the prince and his knights would come and hunt him. He left enough tracks so he could lead us here, which, I might add, is somewhere we have never been before. I think it is his plan to take over Camelot. He wants to control you and through that, control Camelot.”

“How could he do that? The fact that we die when he does, doesn’t mean we can’t just lock him up or something. He can’t control us.” Merlin looked at him sadly and Arthur felt like somebody had poured ice water over his back. “He can’t, can he?”

“Thats the other problem. Most half-vampires go insane on their first night. They’ll turn into animals, only thinking about blood. And animals you can train.”

That was quite the scary thought. There fell a silence in which everybody was progressing this information. After a few moments Leon opened his mouth, and closed it again. He repeated this a few times, like he didn’t knew what to say but knew he had to say something. Eventually he licked his lips and spoke.

“So ... So if I get this right, our first priority is not going insane.” Everybody slowly nodded. God this was such a weird conversation. “Then we need to kill the vampire before any of us die.”

“Piece of a cake”

A sudden burst of laughter came from the knights when Gwaine made that comment.

God they were so screwed, but at least they got eachother. And they were the knights of the round table, they could to anything. If they could beat an immortal army then they could also beat some bloody vampire. Time they made a course of action. Ever the prince, Arthur took the lead.

“Right so what do we have to do to prevent from going insane?”

Merlin looked really uncomfortable at this point and Arthur had the sinking feeling that he was not going to like this. And to make it even worse, now that he wasn’t going up in a flashback, that little voice in Arthur’s head that told him to attack Merlin became stronger, it was even stronger than before now. But Arthur was determinated to not attack the man.

“Ah well, I would guess you can feel it. It is ... how am I going to explain this?” 

“Don’t keep stammering like a girl _Mer_ lin, just get on with it.”

“Uhm right. So if I’m correct then yo guys are feeling something right now, maybe not so much already but it will get quite bigger. It’s a hunger, you see. And if you don’t still that hunger before the night is over, then it will grow so huge that it will drive you insane.”

Oh that was not good, that was definitely not good at all. Arthur could feel the hunger, and he knew what it was longing for. The others didn’t seem to realise what it would take to still the hunger yet as they looked quite puzzled. They did feel it though, he could see it in their eyes, the longing.

“What do we need to do to still it?” The always so quiet Percival couldn’t have chosen a worse moment to speak up. For Arthur really didn’t wanted to hear the answer. Merlin took a deep breath, he knew how they would take his answer.

“You have to drink blood, human blood.”

Everybody reacted like expected: shocked. They all stood up from where they had sat on the log and took a step back from Merlin, as if that would take back what he had said.

“Blood?! Human blood?!”

“You gotta be kidding!”

“I’m not going to drink blood!”

“You really expect us to drink blood?!”

Arthur noticed that Lancelot looked less shocked than the rest and realised that Merlin must have told him before the rest woke up. They exchanged grim expressions, they both knew that they wouldn’t have a choice. Didn’t mean they were just gonna give in without a fight. Merlin stood up too and had a pleading expression on his face.

“Look guys I understand you don’t want to do this, but you have to understand that it is the only choice.” Arthur saw that several knights opened their mouths to object but silenced them with a glance. They needed to hear Merlin out.

“I have spent the entire time while you were unconsious thinking about this. It is really the only way, you have to understand. We can’t fix everything in one night. And if you guys go insane then I can find a cure a thousand times over but it won’t heal you. You’ll go insane. Insane! You’ll spent the rest of your lifes running around, killing people for their blood until people will start to hunt you down like a animal. You won’t even have to drink much, just a little bit.”

The situation was starting to sink in. If they didn’t do this, they would go insane. And none of the knights fancied that. They still didn’t want to though. And Merlin was starting to smell like the most delicious food Arthur ever ate, it was very distracting.

“There isn’t a village in a day’s ride from here, so it is pointless anyway.” Elyan suddenly said. Merlin smiled sadly.

“Already thought of something to fix that.”

They were silent, none of them knowing what to say. Gwaine was the one who broke it. But while the fun-loving knight normally always sounded so mocking, he sounded very serious now. Quietly he said.

“We’re knights, we protect our people. Not attack them. Do you really expect us to just jump on the first best passenger, like its nothing?”

Merlin smiled sadly. He really needed to stop that. He was supposed to be happy and optimistic in even the worst times. He also needed to stop smelling like that or Arthur would go insane.

Oh. Right.

“Actually” his servant said “I was thinking of somebody who is stupid enough to willingly help you.” When he met only blank faces the servant sighed before reaching up and unknotting his neckerchief. It wasn’t until then, when the neckerchief was completely off and was held in a tight fist, it wasn’t until the scent of Merlin that was previously hidden by the neckerchief fully hit him and Arthur’s mouth started to water, that Arthur realised what Merlin was saying. He staggered a few steps back. As if that would stop the scent, merlin’s offer and the goddamn fact that deep inside he knew that there was no other choice. The knights staggered back with him, trying to put as much distance between them and the boy standing in front of them. Afraid that if they came too close they might do the unthinkable. They were all too shocked to speak. Except one.

“No, no absolutely not!” It was the first time that Lancelot spoke up, Merlin didn’t tell him this part of his plan then.

“Lancelot” Merlin pleaded.

“No! We’re not going to do it Merlin!”

It’s the only way.”

“WE’LL KILL YOU GODDAMNIT!” Gwaine screamed.

“No you won’t” Merlin was ridiculously calm given the circumstances. “You’ll stop when you have had enough”

“How can you be so sure of that? We can feel it, you know. And once we give it what it wants ... how can you be sure we won’t kill you?” Leon spoke barely above a whisper. 

“Cause your the knights of the round table. You would never allow anything to happen to the prince’s rdiculous idiot of a manservant. All you ha.. JUST LISTEN!” Merlin interrupted the protests that were about to come out of the mouths of the knights.

“I have thought a long time about this. I won’t allow you to go insane. And as Elyan pointed out: there isn’t anybody else around. It’s the only way. And don’t even think about being ‘a noble arse’ and choosing going insane. Cause you’ll only end up killing eachother and drinking me entirely dry. And then Camelot is lost. If you won’t do this for yourselves, do it for Camelot.”

They were silent after that. Arthur decided to speak. “Even if we manage to control ourselves, there are six of us Merlin. SIX. If we all have to drink from you, you’ll lose quite a lot of blood.”

“I can have it.”

“We just don’t want to hurt you” Merlin smiled fondly at Percival’s quiet wisper. The first genuide smile of that evening.

“You won’t. The poison on your fangs will cause me to fall in a painless slumber. I won’t even notice it”

Arthur wanted to refuse, to just tell him that: no they won’t. But every argument they gave, Merlin managed to bring it down. He had really thought about this. And the hunger grew and grew and Merlin’s smell became so pressing that Arthur almost wondered if he did it on purpose. He had to give all he had just to not attack his ser- fuck it - his _friend._

He suddenly realised that everybody was looking at him. He licked his lips, of course he had to actually make the decision. He really hated it to be prince sometimes. Because no matter how it made him disgust himself, he knew what was the right decision. What was the only decision. So even though he knew he would never forgive himself, he spoke.

“Alright, lets do it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you like it?  
> quite a cliffhanger, isn't it.  
> As a reader I have grown to hate cliffhangers, but as a writer I found out how great it feels to write one.  
> You know that feeling when you have a new book and you can just stare a long time at your bookcase, because it just looks so good and fitting between your other books, and you feel just really content?  
> Thats sort of the feeling.  
> Anyway, see you next week!  
> I hope  
> I'll try.  
> Comments and kudos are good motivation.  
> byeee


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Peeks around corner*  
> Uhm, hey guys. You're not mad at me, are you?  
> *Gets rotten tomato thrown at my head. squeals and hide behind corner again*  
> Okay, okay. I'm sorry it took so long for me to upgrade this. But I do have good excuses.
> 
> First of all: It was finally swimming weather at my home and I didn't wasted it. So I had less time than normal to write.  
> Second: This chapter is WAY longer than all the previous ones. I didn't wanted to cut it in half, so it took longer to write it (dûh)  
> Third: This chapter was a hell to write. I knew how I waned everything but it was still a very hard chapter to write. 
> 
> I do, however, believe the wait was worth it. At least I hope so. I have put A LOT of work, time and frustration in this chapter so please let me know if you think that it was worth it.
> 
> I am on a holliday in France now and I have no idea how much this will influence my writing. I'll keep writing whenever I can. It might be more than normal, or less or the same. I dunno. I guess we will see.
> 
> Oh and my mother beta'd this so I guess there will be less mistakes. But there are probably some left since were all dutch.
> 
> ENJOY!

Merlin moved behind the sitting-logs to the bedrolls and sat between Gwaine’s and Percival’s, when everybody looked puzzled, he sighed.

“I don’t want to risk falling in the fire. That would be quite a stupid way to die, wouldn’t it?”

“Uhm, right.” Arthur responded “So, how do we do ... it?”

“Uhm”

Right. He didn’t thought of that.

His face must have said quite the same because Arthur snorted in that way only Arthur can. It was his ‘oh-my-god-you’re-such-an-idiot-Merlin-do-I-have-to-do-EVERYTHING-myself’ snort. For some reason, Merlin was really glad to hear it. He wasn’t going to let Arthur enjoy his stupidity for too long though.

“Uhm ... instinct?”

“Yeah, I guess”

Merlin had no idea a conversation could turn awkward so quickly. But then again, this whole night was one mess of awkwardness, guiltyness, weirdness and blooddrinking.

Arthur looked thoughtfull at him for some time, then he shuddered and snapped out of his thinking progress. He looked everywhere but at Merlin.

“Right ... Uhm ... I’ll go first, I guess.”

The others nodded, all too glad that they could postpone the unavoidable. Merlin knew that Arthur choose to go first because he was the leader. His men might feel a little better if they were following orders.

Arthur moved over to Merlin and stopped beside him. He looked thoughtfull for another moment after which he moved over and sat behind Merlin. The servant freezed when he felt Arthur shuffle closer until Merlin was practically in his lap.

“Uhm, Arthur, what are you doing?”

Arthur responded by putting his hands on Merlin’s chest and softly pushing him backwards, until Merlin’s back rested against Arthur’s front.

“Shh. Can’t have you falling forward, can we?”

Arthur’s breath tickled Merlin’s ear and he relaxed into Arthur’s chest. He turned his face away from Arthur, so the prince could reach his neck easier, and waited for the pain of the fangs entering his flesh.

He felt Arthur hestiate and reached out with his hand. He planned on only letting his hand brush Arthur’s as a way of moral support but his friend surprised him by gripping it tightly. He gave the hand of his friend a gently squeeze, the sign that he was ready. A moment later he felt Arthur’s fangs brush his neck, until they stopped at a vein. For a moment they were just there, not moving. Then, Merlin felt them pressing his skin.

It didn’t take long for the prince to break the skin. Merlin gasped and shuddered, because no matter how much he tried to prepare himself, it fucking HURT. For a moment it looked like Arthur would draw back, but Merlin squeezed his hand to stop him from doing that. Then the fangs reached his vein and Merlin shuddered once more. However much he tried to stop it, he whined. Then, a feeling of numbness spread from his neck to the rest of his body. He felt that he lost control of it and that soon, he couldn’t move anything at all. But instead of fighting it, Merlin welcomed it.

He heard himself sigh and his eyes fluttered close. He felt his hand going limp in Arthur’s.

Something dripped on his neck and collarbone. Was it raining?

That was his last thought before the poison finished his work and Merlin’s body went completely lax.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He had told the knights that he would fall in a painless slumber.

That had been a lie, told to put his friends at ease.

The book had made it clear that his body would go slack, but it hadn’t said a thing about painless. Or slumber.

Merlin found out really soon that it was half the truth.

His hearing, sight and smell had stopped functioning. He could, however, feel everything. He felt every drop that fell on his neck and collarbones, he felt Arthur’s body pressed to his and he felt the two fangs that connected their body’s. It stung, but it wasn’t particulairy painfull. It was definitely less painfull than before the poison started to work.

He wasn’t sleeping, but he wasn’t awake either. He was turned inside himself, in his own little world. He felt as though he was drifting away, only the two fangs in his neck keeping him grounded. It was like time slowed. Merlin wanted to drift away into the wonderfull abyss. But he knew that there was something that he needed to do. What was it again? Something important? Something with magic? Something with Arthur! That shook him awake again. Arthur, needed him. He needed him to get through this whole transformation.

That was it! Arthur needed his magic. He could have it!

Merlin, statisfied that he had found the answer, let himself drift further away.

And when Arthur finally could bring himself to suck the wounds and drink his friends blood, Merlin pushed his magic with all his might. It flowed, together with the blood, through the wounds into Arthur. He pumped it through the prince, giving him as much as possible. Cause there was no way Merlin would let Arthur suffer if there was anything he could do about it.

After the first mouthful he felt Arthur hestiate. But after a while he took another mouth. With every bit of blood and magic leaving his body, Merlin drifted further away. It didn’t hurt anymore. In fact, it was almost ... 

No, no, no, it wasn’t pleasant. It was something else. It was satisfying.

He didn’t enjoy the situation, there really wasn’t anything to enjoy. But the feeling of his blood, his life, flowing out of him and into Arthur, that was fine, that was good. He had sacrificed so much for Arthur already that it simply felt right to do this for him too.

Suddenly something changed. It felt like somebody pulled out a plug and Merlin was sucked into the abyss. He felt enormous pain as all kind of painful memories back from Ealdor suddenly started to plague him. He went so far into the abyss that he was afraid that he would die, sucked out of his very own body. Lost in the abyss, never to return.

For a moment he let himself play with the thought. But soon reality crashed on him.

No, no, no, no! He couldn’t die! Who would protect Arthur if he died? He had to protect Arthur!

But he couldn’t stop it, he couldn’t stop that he was sucked further and further away in the abyss. The memoriles were getting worse and worse. His body shifted a little, but Merlin was barely aware of it, he was already too far gone for that. Merlin gave up the fighting, there was nothing he could do. He was going to die.

Suddenly he was enfulged in warm arms. Arms that carried the message of safety, that everything would be allright. Those arms held him tight, not too tight to hurt him, but tight enough to give of a clear message: ‘I won’t let you go’. The arms pressed him to a warm and comfy chest, through which he could feel a steady heartbeat.

He relaxed, the person holding him was going to keep him safe. He felt his own heartbeat, fast and frantic, slowing down and adapt to the stronger and reassuring one, until they followed the same rythm. And slowly, those arms pulled him out of the abyss again. They kept him safe, kept him grounded.

When the night grew on and other fangs replaced the first, Merlin didn’t forgot to push his magic. But he did it calmly this time, providing a steady stream. He wasn’t afraid anymore, because those arms would keep him safe. 

And they did.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Merlin had moved over to the bedrolls. What the hell was he doing?

“I don’t want to risk falling in the fire. That would be quite a stupid way to die, wouldn’t it?”

Yeah, pretty much. Arthur almost smiled. Almost. Before he remembered the situation.

“Uhm, right.” he said “So, how do we do ... it?”

Merlin suddenly looked unsure. “Uhm”

Oh my gods, he didn’t know! The idiot had gone on the entire night about that he had read everything and prepared everything, but he forgot to look up how to actually do it? It was so typical that Arthur, despite himself, snorted. His friend could be such an idiot. Merlin wasn’t going to allow him to enjoy his stupidity for long though.

“Uhm... instinct?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Wow, that turned awkward quickly. But then again: this whole night was fucked up and awkward. He looked at his manservant, at the way he sat there, obliviously feeling the tension. It wasn’t just his servant that was sitting there, waiting to be used like some sacrifical lamb, it was his friend, his _best_ friend. And it took this horrible events for Arthur to finally admit to himself that the man was his best friend and that he wouldn’t know what to do if anything happened to him. He shuddered at the thought, yet that was exactly what he was going to risk.

He was risking his best friend here. What if they took too much? What if one of the knights lost control? What if something unpredicted happened? What if Merlin got hurt? What if ... What if he _died?_

Arthur knew that instead, he had to make sure that his friend was allright, that he would get through this. Because Arthur would take care of that.

He was going to go first, there was no other way. He wasn’t going to allow anybody or anything to touch his friend without his absolute permittance and control of the situation. Nothing was going to go wrong, nothing would happen. 

He couldn’t look at Merlin when he said that he would go first. He couldn’t stand the acceptance that he was sure he would find in his friend’s eyes. Why did Merlin had to be so damn loyal and sacrificing. The boy really had zero sense of self-preservation.

He vaguely noticed the knights nodding in relief and wondered sourly what this events would do to the group. Would the guilt drive a rift between their friendship?

He walked over to the boy and looked at him. Merlin just looked back, face full of acceptance, like Arthur predicted. 

How was he going to do this? He needed to be close to the boy and prevent him from falling over. At the same time, he needed to be close to his neck, so he didn’t have to shift to do ... the thing. He also needed an excuse to stay close when it was the turn of the knights. After debating several positions, he finally found one he was satisfied with.

He walked over until he was behind Merlin and sat down. God, the smell! But he had to ignore it. He proceeded to shuffle forward until Merlin was practically in his lap, his legs on either side of the boy. He felt Merlin freeze, probably feeling quite uncomfortable so close to the prince regent.

“Uhm, Arthur, what are you doing?”

He responded by putting his hands on Merlin’s chest and pushing him gently back until his back rested against Arthur’s chest.

“Shh. Can’t have you falling forward, can we?”

Okay, that came out much more gentle than Arthur meant it to be. But Merlin relaxed in his embrace so he thought the jibes he was going to get over this might be worth it. And he could always blame the vampire blood. The boy turned his head away, exposing his neck. The smell was overwhelming now and it took everything in Arthur’s being to just sit still.

Arthur hesitated, was he really going to do this? Was he really going to drink the blood of his best friend? Merlin must have felt his hesitation because suddenly Arthur felt the boy’s hand brush his. He didn’t thought it through but handled on instinct and grabbed the hand. He could almost feel Merlin’s surprise but he didn’t care. They were going to need each others support right now. And he could always blame Merlin or the vampire blood after this was over. Merlin gave his hand a gentle squeeze, the sign that he was ready.

Arthur opened his mouth and let his fangs brush Merlin’s neck until his nose tolt him he was on exact the good place, above a vein. The smell was so overwhelming that Arthur was scared to give in. What if he lost control? But he had no choice. He let his fangs sink in Merlin’s flesh. As soon as his fangs broke through the skin, Merlin shuddered and gasped. Arthur stopped immediately. Shit, he knew it was going to hurt the boy! What was he going to do now? Merlin squeezed his hand, making his opinion on the matter very clear.

He had no choice, he had to do this. And if it hurted that much, it meant that he had to do it faster. So the poison would start to work and the pain would be over sooner. Having made up his mind he pushed again, until he reached the vein. Merlin shuddered once more, he even whined. The sound went straight through Arthur’s heart and he knew he was never going to forget it. His eyes started to water, but he pushed the tears back. He was NOT going to cry. He waited as soon as he could access the blood. He waited until the poison had done its job completely, less the change that he might hurt his friend.

He felt the poison leave his fangs and enter Merlin’s body. He felt how every single one of the boy’s muscles started to unclench. Merlin sighed and his eyes fluttered close. His head rested just a little heavier on Arthur’s shoulder now that the neck-muscles weren’t keeping it up anymore. His hand went limp in Arthur’s. That was the final string and the tears that Arthur had been keeping in so carefully flowed over his cheeks, until they dripped on Merlin’s neck and collarbone and dissapeared in the boy’s shirt. Arthur couldn’t keep them in anymore and he cried silent tears while the body of his friend went completely lax, the poison having finished his work. Either the knights didn’t see his tears or they didn’t care. Whatever it was, they didn’t comment and kept silent through the entire ordeal. Arthur was very thankful for that.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took a while for Arthur to be able to actually drink the blood. His fangs had made perfect wounds and as long as he didn’t move them, or started sucking, the blood would stay in Merlin’s body. So he had the time to prepare himself for what was to come.

He couldn’t have, by no means, prepared himself enough. Because whatever he expected it to be like, he did not expect this. He had expected the disgusting copper taste of blood. He even prepared himself for that he might actually like it (the smell and the vampire blood in him could have caused that). He did not expect what it really was like.

When he finally sucked the wounds and took a mouthfull of Merlin’s blood, he was overwhelmed. Because blood was not the only thing leaving Merlin and entering him. The blood tasted even better than Merlin smelled, like the smell had been through a filter but now it was bare and in its truest form and it swiveled through his mouth, it was delicious. That was, however, not what shocked Arthur so much. Because with the blood, a whirlwind of emotions left Merlin and entered Arthur.

Arthur tasted hope, pain, grief, merriness, sadness, adoration, worry, love, forgiveness, trust and loyalty. There was so much, yet he knew he barely scraped the surface of the enigma that is Merlin. He knew the boy for almost six years now, yet he could never figure him out. The wise fool, the brave coward, the graceful idiot, the old innocent, the sad optimist. Arthur never knew what to expect from the boy. And now he had a mouthful of him. He tasted so many things that were so Merlin and were so strong. But instead of solving the puzzle that was his best friend, it only made him more complicated. For where there was a lot of love, forgiveness, trust, loyalty, hope and merriness (which made sense) there was also so much sadness, grief and pain. God the pain, where did he get all those. What could possibly cause all that pain and sadness. Who could he possibly be griefing.

But maybe even more surprising than the presence of the pain, was the absence of some emotions. For no matter how hard he tried, Arthur couldn’t detect even a single trace of anger, disgust, hate, fustration, fear or blame. There were no negative feelings to any person. Even though he had suffered a lot of pain, and somebody had to be the cause for that, there was no blame or anger or hate.

Except there was. Deep, deep down, buried under all the other emotions, were the emotions Arthur couldn’t taste at first. They were carefully hidden, but there.

Besides all those emotions there was another presence. It was warm and comforting and for some reason Arthur thought that he didn’t sucked it out but Merlin pushed it to him willingly. But no matter how much he focused, he couldn’t fathom out what it was. No matter what it was, it was there and it made him feel reassured and warm and calm and _safe_. It made him feel like everything was going to be allright.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, Arthur managed to swallow the blood. He was left full of questions and wonder and awe for his friend. He wondered what he would taste next. 

Arthur spared a glimpse to the knights but quickly looked away again. They all looked shocked to the core. Maybe they didn’t believe he would actually do it, maybe they would lose their respect for him now. He pretty much deserved that. He now vaguely remembered them gasping as soon as the blood entered his mouth. This events would probably destroy their group, it made Arthur very sad.

He turned his mind back to more pressing matters. Such as the one leaning on him. Arthur took another mouthful of blood.

He got exploded by the same feelings as before. The precence was there again, leaking out of Merlin and into him. The emotions exploded in his mouth and travelled to his brain. They were stronger this time and once again Arthur was full of awe and curiosity when the feelings of hope, pain, grief, merriness, sadness, adoration, worry, love, forgiveness, trust and loyalty filled him once again.

But Arthur’s curiosity was spiked and he wanted to find out more. He wanted to know what exactly it was that had hurted Merlin so much, so he focussed on the pain he felt. Images flashed through his mind, too fast to fully comprehend. They were images out of Ealdor.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A two year old Merlin, looking up at his mother. Who just told him that there wasn’t any food tonight again. Because Thomson was giving a party and there wasn’t enough food left to give them some. And little todler Merlin nodded in resignment and started to make ready for sleep on an empty stomach again.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Four year old Merlin, begging the village eldest for some food to give to his sick mother. The man looked down on him in disdain.

‘How dare you ask for food when you allready had some yesterday. You really are a sick dog. You should be happy for the fact that we even let you live. Now get out of my sight you filthy bastard!’

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Six year old Merlin, running away from a group of older kids who were throwing rocks at him. The little boy ran into the house and in his mothers arms. They cried for hours. When they finally stopped, Arthur heard a tiny voice asking for his mothers attention. Hunith let go of him so he could look in her tearstreaken face.

‘Mother, am I a monster?’

Hunith looked horrified and immediately started to assure her son that he wasn’t. And it looked like Merlin believed her and went to bed happy. 

But Arthur knew better, because he could feel it. He could feel how Merlin felt and he knew that the boy thought his mother had just said that because she was his mother and therefor it was required of her to say that. He saw little Merlin lying awake in his bed in the middle of the night and knew he was planning how he could best take his own life. So his mother could be happy and freed of the burden that was her son.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hunith making  six year old Melrin promise to never take his own life after she caught him trying to drown himself. With tears flowing out of her eyes she told her son that if he killed himself, then she would do that too. Because she loved him too much. She promised him this and only that was good enough to confince Merlin to promise not to try and take his own life again.

He already was such a burden for his mother, he didn’t wanted to add to that.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He saw fifteen year old Merlin, getting beaten up by bullies. There were six of them and they were at least nineteen. They were in the forest and Merlin was curled up on himself in order to protect himself from al the shoes that were flying at his face. They called him all kind of things.

‘You’re not worth living’ 

‘We should just drown you like the sick rat you are’

‘You’re a shame for your mom, no wonder your dad left her. He probably didn’t wanted to be confronted with having a bastard son’

‘You’re even worse than that whore you call your mother’

It was that last comment that made Merlin suddenly stand up. He looked up angry at the boys, who seemed amused that they had provoked a reaction.

‘Stay away of my mother’

Merlin tried to walk away but the boys had surrounded him.

‘Ahw, are you mad at us now?’

‘Are you gonna slap me? I dare that you are too much of a coward for that.’

The head bully presented Merlin his cheek and kept taunting him.

‘Come on. Or are you too afraid? Too much of a chicken? Toook, tok tok tok’

The bully then proceeded to act like a chicken, making all the others laugh. Merlin just looked at him angry. Arthur felt a whirlwind of emotions. There was anger and sadness. But no fear. Merlin wasn’t scared for these guys, for some reason he was confident that he could take them. He sounded so convinced that Arthur immediately believed him. Even though it wasn’t logical.

But when the bullies stopped laughing and started to beat Merlin again, the boy didn’t fight, he just let it come.

‘You’re worth nothing’

‘You’re not even worth the beatings we give you’

‘You should kneel at our feet and kiss our boots. Because that will be all you will ever be capable of.’

‘You’re a nobody, and you always will be.’

And Arthur felt resignment coming from Merlin and he realised why the boy didn’t fight back. Because deep, deep down, Merlin believed them.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arthur jerked out of Merlin’s memories with a shock and instinctly swallowed the blood. He stared at whar he could see of Merlin’s face and wondered how the hell sweet innocent Merlin could have gone through all that. The worst part was that Arthur knew that this was nothing. He knew that he only saw a fragmence of the tormenting his friend had gone through. He had seen the top of the iceberg and he had no idea what was under the surface.

Would Merlin still feel so unwanted? Would he still feel like he wasn’t worth living, that he was a monster? Arthurs stomach churned over at that thought. Because it was so not true. If there was anybody who wasn’t a monster it was Merlin. The thought that Merlin, sweet, innocent, happy Merlin wasn’t worth living was as ridiculous as the idea that there lived unicorns on the moon.

He thought back to the anger and hate he had felt deep buried under the other emotions, very deep in Merlin. Would those feelings be directed at Merlin himself?

At that moment, Arthur knew he had to know if that was the case. He had to know if Merlin still thought of his own life as worthless.

It was then that he noticed Merlin’s increased heartbeat. There wasn’’t any sign on the outside that said that the boy was in any distress, but Arthur knew better than to trust that. Merlin’s heartbeat went frantic. And somehow, Arthur just knew that Merlin was scared and in pain right now.

He could smack himself. Of COURSE him getting through his memories made Merlin relive them. It was completely logical and Arthur felt awful for not thinking about this.

Merlin’s heartbeat sped up even more and Arthur was suddenly struck with the thought that he was losing him. He was losing Merlin. MERLIN!

No, no, no, no, no, no! He couldn’t lose Merlin! He had to keep him save. He had promised that to himself. But at the moment the only thing Arthur could do was to enfold the boy and hope that he could get the massage across: ‘you are not alone, I won’t let you go’. So that was exactly what Arthur did. He wrapped his arms around the thin frame of the boy and pressed him tightly to the prince’s chest. Not tight enough to hurt, but strong enough to get his message clear.

He willed his heartbeat to calm down, so it could help Merlin calm down. There were a few moments in which Arthur feared that it wouldn’t work. But then Merlin calmed down, his heartbeat was going slower and slower until it matched Arthur’s.

Arthur held his best friend for a few more moments until he snapped out of it. He wasn’t done yet, he still needed some blood to prevent going insane. But even when he took another mouthful of his friends blood, he didn’t remove his arms. He didn’t let go.

Soon he was again surrounded by the nice feeling that was Merlin. The emotions were even stronger now, as if the more Arthur unraveled the mistery that was Merlin, the more the boy stood open for it.

And again, he could feel the disgust and hate deep buried. He once again wondered if those feelings were directed to Merlin himself. But after the whole panicking thing he didn’t dare to try it. He would ask Merlin about it later. Now the boy was just too vulnerable for it. Arthur decided to focus on another emotion, a positive one this time. They both probably needed that. Arthur wanted something that would remind him of Merlin, the merry, loyal Merlin that he knew, not the sad and old one. So it was loyalty that he focused on. Just as Arthur expected, it started in Ealdor with Hunith and Will. But to his surprise, the images of Ealdor were quickly replaced by that of Camelot.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To Arthur’s great surprise, he saw himself. Although he was quite younger there than he was now, he guessed it must have been just after he met Merlin. He saw himself eating his dinner while Merlin stood next to him, a very serious expression on his face. There was a head of a giant snake on the table.

‘You? You chopped its head of?’

Merlin nodded. And Arthur could feel it. He could feel how important it was to the boy that the prince believed him. His own life was at stake. But Arthur also felt the resignment. Merlin didn’t really believe Arthur would listen to him, merely a servant.

‘Ewan was bitten by a snake of the shield when he was fighting Valiant. You can talk to Gaius. You can see the puncture wounds were the snake bit him.’

Surely Arthur wasn’t going to listen to Merlin, a servant with no status and no worth. But maybe he would listen to Gaius. ‘Ewan was beating him. He had to cheat!’

‘Valiant wouldn’t dare use magic in Camelot’

‘Ewan was pinned under Valiant’s shield. No one could see the snake biting him.’

‘I don’t like the guy, but that doesn’t mean he was cheating’

‘Gaius is preparing an antidote to the snakevenom. When Ewan is consious he will tell you what happened. If you fight Valiant in the final, he will use the shield. It’s the only way he can beat you. Look at it!’

Merlin took up the snake from the table and showed it at memory-Arthur, who had stood up somewhere in the conversation.

‘Have you ever seen any snakes like this in Camelot?’

Memory-Arthur took the head of the snake over from Merlin.

‘I know I’m just a servant, and my word doesn’t count for anything. I wouldn’t lie to you.’

‘I want you to swear to me, what you’re telling me is true.’

‘I swear it’s true.’

There was a silence.

‘Then I believe you.’

Memory-Arthur was looking at the snake so he didn’t see the look of surprise on his servants face. But Real-Arthur did, and he felt what Merlin felt.

Merlin was surprised, immensely surprised, that Arthur would believe him. He had told the man because he was desperate and he had to try. But he had never thought that Arthur would actually believe him. He had hoped he could convince the prince to go with him and listen to Gaius. Was there some ulterior motive? Sure it was about the prince’s own life, but this meant he had to take some serious risks. Why would the prince listen to him? Even believe him? Why did he listen to somebody like Merlin?

His mother always listened to him, and believed him. She always belived him. And because she did, Merlin was too grateful to ever lie to her. But she had to, it was kinda her job as mother to listen and believe him. So even though she kept telling him that he wasn’t worthless and he did count for something, he didn’t believe her. Not really. Being his mother, she was bound to tell him that.

When he first came to Camelot he had asked Gaius if he was a monster. Gaius had said that he should never think that. That as long as he kept doing the right things, with the right intentions, he would never be a monster. Especially not because of how he was born. But Gaius was his guardian, just like his mother he was bound to tell him that he wasn’t worthless, so was Gaius. And if everybody else said otherwise, Merlin was more bound to believe them.

He asked neither Will or Gwen what they thought on the matter, but they did listen to him. They treated him like an equel. But Gwen had just met him, she hadn’t seen the monster in him yet. And Will, he knew him for too long. They allready hang out since they were babies, fresh out of the womb. By the time Will was old enough to recognise Merlin for who he really was, it was allready too late. None of the other kids wanted to play with Will anymore. And Will, being the honorable and great man he was, didn’t wanted to leave Merlin. Because he felt honourbound to play with him.  Will and his mother must be happy that Merlin was gone now. And Merlin was glad that he could make them happy, they deserved it. Merlin was convinced that this was the case, it made real-Arthur feel sick.

But Arthur. Arthur had no reason to listen to him, let alone believe him. He wasn’t bound to like his mother or Gaius. He wasn’t just nice like Will and Gwen. Arthur was arrogant and a prat. It also wasn’t that he hadn’t seen the true Merlin yet, the prince never felt bad when he called Merlin useless. Arthur was honest, and if he believed that Merlin lied, he would have said so. Arthur had no reason to say he believed Merlin, other than that he really believed him.

Real-Arthur was witness to the first moment in Merlin’s life where the boy felt appreciated. The first moment in which Merlin felt like maybe, maybe he wasn’t only worthless. Maybe he could do good things. Real-Arthur saw what memory-Arthur didn’t. A huge smile appeared on Merlin’s face when memory-Arthur, without realising it, gave him the best thing he ever had in his entire life: A feeling of selfworth.

At that moment, a little seed apeared in Merlin’s feelings. A little seed that soon grew to enormous proportions, until it was the biggest and most beautiful flower in the entire being of Merlin. That seed was loyalty, the loyalty to Arthur. It was that moment that Merlin decided that he would do everything for Arthur, even risk discovery. Because Arthur was so worth it. 

Merlin had seen the place deep inside the prince, hidden away by the arrogance and pround. Merlin had seen Arthur’s core, the man he really was, the man he could become. That man, would become the greatest king Camelot had ever know. Merlin would make sure of it.

More seeds followed loyalty: trust, hope, love, worry and adoration. All focused on Arthur, because deep inside, the prince was not only the best king. He was the best man this world would ever see, Merlin was convinced of it.

And so real-Arthur was witness to the moment Merlin decided to dedicate his life to him. There was so much Merlin would do for him, it took his breath away. Arthur wondered if there was even a limit to it.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There followed a few other images. Gwen teaching Merlin what it meant to be a servant. Gaius promising him he wouldn’t tell something (what it was, wasn’t clear). Lancelot telling Merlin he wouldn’t tell anybody. Gwaine helping him polishing boots. The rest of the knights all came along, but Arthur didn’t pay really attention anymore. His mind was reeling with what he already saw.

Arthur swallowed the blood on instinct, his mind too busy with the new information to think about it. He wanted to know more, he wanted to taste more. Not only to know more about Merlin, but also to taste that amazing taste again and feel that safe feeling again, because he kinda needed it. Just when he was about to do it, he realised that he didn’t need it anymore.

He had enough blood to prevent from going insane. Yet, Arthur hestitated. It tasted so good, and the fact that he didn’t need it anymore wasn’t anything right? He wanted to know more about Merlin. He wanted to feel that amazing feeling again. And if he stopped now he would probably need more the next day, so he could take more now and skip tomorrow. Right?

Arthur shook himself out of whatever kind of trance he was in. No! He couldn’t have more, all the knights still needed blood. It was _Merlin_ he was drinking from, goddamnit! He felt disgusted by himself for even thinking about having more. 

Quick but careful he pulled his fangs out of his best friends neck. He took a moment to carefully lick his teeth and mouth, catching all the left over blood. But he couldn’t postpone it anymore. Slowly he looked up and turned to his knights. His arms were still protectively wrapped around Merlin.

His knights silently looked back. They all looked scared, wary and confused. It was almost like they knew something Arthur didn’t and they were contemplating if they should tell him. But that was ridiculous, what could it possibly be. They all stared at each other for a few moments, nobody saying anything. Until Arthur snapped, it was not his fault damnit! Did he really have to do everything?

“Well, who goes next?”

The knights started to shift uncomfortably and looked at each other. Like they were saying: You do it. Arthur sighed. It was clear they needed to be told who went next, they needed a leader. God he really hated having to be that leader.

“Leon, you first.” Arthur said in his ‘I-am-the-prince-and-thou-shall-do-as-I-say’ voice. The other knights sighed in relief. Leon nervously licked his lips and walked forwards. That’s why Arthur choose Leon first, if there was someone he could trust to keep his head cool and obey, it was his second in command.

The knight kneeled in front of him, his eyes asking for permission. Arthur nodded, but stayed as he was, making it clear that Leon had to do it kneeling because there was no way Arthur was leaving his friend. Leon nodded back and shifted his eyes from Arthur to Merlin. He licked his lips again. The knight leaned forward and opened his mouth. Arthur had to fight every instinct which all told him to get Merlin as far away from here as possible.

Very carefully Leon placed his fangs over the two little wounds Arthur’s had left. It was some sort of unspoken agreement that they would make sure the wounds were as small as possible. Leon let his fangs sank into the wounds very careful and very slowly, to minimalize his making the wounds worse. When the knight reached the boy’s vein he glanced up at his prince one last time, before he sucked the wound.

It wasn’t until Leon finally drank that Arthur understood. Suddenly the gasps of the knights and their looks made sense. He realised what that presence in Merlin’s blood had been and the memories suddenly made much more sense. Everything now made sense. Now he knew, Arthur wished to go back to his blissfull ignorance. But it couldn’t been unseen anymore, it couldn’t been ignored. When Leon took his first mouthful, something fundamental in Arthur’s life changed and his heart sank to the bottoms of his boots.

For when he drank, Leon’s eyes glowed golden.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAND,  
> that was it. The nail on my coffin (dutch saying I have no idea if it's an English one to).  
> I really hope you enjoyed it.  
> Please let me know if you did.  
> I'll post again as soon as I can.  
> BYEEEEE


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey here I am again.  
> I actually finished this two days before but I didn't have wifi till now, so it's a little late, but better late than never. Right?  
> Anyway, I wanted to thank you guys for the amazing reactions to my story. It really motivated me and I'm glad you liked the story.  
> I'm no longer beta-less, my mother decided to be mine. Pretty sad if you think about it, I can't even find a native English person to beta me. Anyway I think she did a great job.  
> Also, I finally found out how to change the corrector on my computer from Dutch to English. Writing is SO much easier now that there won't appear red lines under every word.  
> I just realised I never did the disclaimer thing. Well, here it is:  
> I don't own Merlin, Arthur or the knights. I also don't own their backstory and everything. The only thing I own is this storyline and Zanobi (anybody found out the meaning of the name yet? ;)  
> I hope you enjoy it.  
> See you next time!

Arthur sat there, looking transfixed at the eyes of his second in command. He saw the wonder appearing in there when Leon probably got to the feelings, he saw the sadness at whatever the knight saw. Somewhere in his mind he saw this. But he didn’t really look, all he did was looking at those two pools of gold. The gold of a sorcerer. The gold of magic. 

And it wasn’t Leon’s magic, that much was sure. 

It felt almost as if the gold was looking back. Arthur just stared and stared. It seemed deep, like a bottomless pit, but gentle and kind. It was flowing calmly and relaxed. It felt welcome and warm. Like if you would fall in the pit, you could just float away into blissful happiness. It felt safe. It felt like coming home. It was that last feeling that confirmed it to Arthur. There was really no question about who’s magic it was. 

His arms relaxed out of their protective stance. He felt Merlin shift a little when his arms stopped holding him steady. Merlin’s head was now dangerously close to falling of Arthur’s shoulder, yet Arthur couldn’t seem to care. 

Merlin had ma... 

He couldn’t say it, he couldn’t even think it. Because that would make it just so real. If he didn’t acknowledge it, maybe it would turn out to be just a stupid nightmare. 

Leon finished his drinking and when he retreated his fangs out of Merlin’s neck, the gold faded away from his eyes. The knight stepped back until he stood with the others, they were all watching Arthur nervously, waiting for the reaction. 

Arthur had no idea how to react however. His mind was swirling with the things he saw, the things he now knew. The memories, Merlin’s feelings, his self doubt, the presence of which Arthur now knew exactly what it was, how Arthur felt, Merlin and everything that had ever happened since the boy came in his life. It was like they were puzzle pieces of the very difficult puzzle that was Merlin. Arthur just couldn’t figure out what the end-picture was going to be. 

He vaguely noticed Merlin shifting a little more, now balancing precariously on the edge of falling. Somewhere he noticed Merlin’s heartbeat speeding up again. But he couldn’t care less at the moment, too wrapped up in his thoughts as he was. 

Sum up the facts, and go from there. A rule that has helped Arthur out of many difficult situations before. 

FACT: The memories he saw were real. There was really no other way. Merlin couldn’t have faked them since the boy wasn’t able of doing anything at the moment. 

FACT: Merlin was loyal to him and Camelot and thought ridiculously low of himself and ridiculously high of Arthur. The memories had made this pretty clear. 

FACT: Merlin was dealing with a lot of self doubt, not something you find in an evil sorcerer a lot. 

FACT: The mag.. The _presence_ in Merlin’s mind didn’t feel evil, it felt right and nice and safe and like home. Could Merlin have faked that? It didn’t seem like the boy was capable of anything at the moment. 

FACT: If Merlin was indeed evil, why hadn’t he done something yet? Its not like he hadn’t the change to? Why hadn’t he killed Arthur or tried to destroy Camelot yet? Or maybe he did. Maybe he had been Morgana’s ally all along but none of his plans worked out? Never mind, this wasn’t a fact at all. Just some guessing. 

FACT: A lot of things now suddenly made sense. Now Arthur thought back at it, there was a ridiculous amount of lucky escapes when Merlin was with them. 

FACT: Merlin just deliberately made himself vulnerable to almost everything. He couldn’t do a single thing to defend himself right now. All the while he knew that six people would drink his blood and that there was every change that they would lose control and kill him. An evil sorcerer wouldn’t do that, would he? 

It didn’t make sense to Arthur. Obliviously Merlin wasn’t evil, that much was sure. But all sorcerers were evil, right? It’s what Arthur had always believed, what he was told and shown. The conclusion should be that Merlin couldn’t be a sorcerer but the gold had said otherwise. Arthur would have thought that it was the whole vampire blood thing, if he hadn’t recognized the gold as the presence in Merlin’s blood. Which indicated that he _was_ a sorcerer. But then why help them? It didn’t make sense at all. 

Merlin’s heartbeat worsened even more and he started to hyperventilate. The knights started to fidget uncomfortably when Merlin was getting worse and Arthur had yet to react. 

It was the sound of Merlin’s wheezing and the wave of protectiveness that Arthur felt that made him realize that he had forgotten something. 

FACT: Merlin was his friend. His best friend. 

Arthur decided that all the other things didn’t matter anymore. That there was only one thing he was 100% sure of and that mattered the most. The other facts shouldn’t be forgotten and Arthur would make sure to question Merlin later about it (and maybe Lancelot, the man looked too guilty for his liking). There was something more important that needed his immediate attention. 

So Arthur wrapped his arms around the boy again and held him firmly in place, just like he had before. Immediately Merlin started to calm down, until his heartbeat was back to its slow pace and his breathing was normal again. 

The knights all sighed with relief and Arthur was glad that he made the right choice. He would ignore the magic stuff for now, his friend needed him more. 

Arthur glanced up at the knights and nodded at Lancelot, outside of him and Leon, he trusted the noble knight the most to not lose control. 

Lancelot walked over without saying anything. The knight kneeled in front of Arthur and proceeded to open his mouth and let his fangs sank in the (now slightly wider) wounds. Just as Arthur and Leon, the knight only took three swallows, albeit less blood for each one. Arthur didn’t bulge his arms, but refrained from looking into his knights eyes during the procedure. He couldn’t allow himself to get distracted now. 

After Lancelot, Arthur decided to choose Gwaine. He hoped that, now that three of them already drank, the change was smaller that he would stupidly refuse. Especially since Lance had already been and of all the knights, he was the closest to Merlin. Luckily Gwaine wasn’t stupid. And even though he swore more than Arthur has ever heard before (and rather colorful at that) he did come forward and repeated Leon’s and Lancelot’s actions. He refused to take more than two mouthfuls though, insisting that he had enough. Arthur reasoned that he just had to trust his knight. 

Next was Elyan, not for a particular reason other than that Percival had the biggest fangs and the change of spilling blood was lesser if he went last. 

By the time it was Percival’s turn, Merlin had turned as white as a sheet. His lips had taken a blue tint and his hand was very cold. Arthur looked worried at his friend. He wondered if the boy could even take one more normal person, let stand Percival. But it was not like they had a choice. 

Percival seemed to follow the same train of thought because he hesitated and looked conflicted at his prince. Arthur nodded, because there really wasn’t another choice. Percival nodded back and opened his mouth. He let his fangs slowly enter the wounds, which had grown considerably wider with all those fangs entering and leaving. 

Arthur could feel the change in every huge mouthful that the big knight took. After the first one, the little color that was left on the poor boy’s cheek disappeared until he looked more death than alive. His hand turned at least a few degrades colder in Arthurs. Percival must have felt the change too because his golden eyes looked worriedly at Arthur. The prince hated himself for nodding. 

After the second mouthful the boy’s lips turned even more blue and he started to shiver slightly. All Arthur could do was holding him more tightly and hoping the knight would have enough very soon. He wasn’t sure how much more Merlin could take. 

The change was the worst with the third swallow. Heavy tremors wracked Merlin’s body. The only thing that wasn’t shivering like madness was his neck, which was held still by Percival’s fangs. Little whimpering sounds left the boys mouth and filled the space around them. Percival looked up in alarm. He retreated his fangs as fast but careful as possible. Arthur threw him a stern look, because however much he might hate it, it wouldn’t do anybody any good if Percival didn’t took enough. The look Percival threw him, reassured him that this wasn’t the case. Now Arthur could focus on the most pressing matter on hand. Like the boy shivering and whimpering in his arms. 

Suddenly it was like everybody snapped out of a trance. All the while the knights had silently watched while one of them drank, now all of them immediately moved to do what was needed. It wasn’t necessary to talk, through the time they had spent together they got so intoned on each other that everybody immediately knew what to do. They worked together like they were one. They were a real team. 

Arthur removed his arms around Merlin in favor of slipping them behind his back and pushing him softly off of him. He was careful to make sure the boy didn’t fall fore-over and used one hand to steady his back and the other to keep his head from lolling around. 

Gwaine was by his side immediately and draped his cape over the shivering boy. Lancelot followed soon, having gone to Merlin’s horse and grasped the medicine bag. Leon was there in a moment to help the noble knight. Together they cleaned and bound Merlin’s neck, while Gwaine and Arthur held him steady. Percival and Elyan stood by the side, giving them space but keeping ready for the next part. 

As soon as the wound was taken care of, Gwaine and Arthur lowered the boy against Arthur again. Lancelot, Leon and Gwaine took a step back to give Arthur space. The prince shifted Merlin and shoved his right arm under the boy’s knees, while his left kept his thin shoulders steady. Slowly he stood up, making sure that Gwaine’s cape didn’t fall of. He vaguely noticed that Merlin was way too light. Seriously, did he skipped meals or something? 

Oh. Right. The stew. Damn. Well, that wouldn’t happen again. 

While he walked, Percival carried Merlin’s bedroll (which was suspiciously far away from the fire) as close to the fire as possible, without risking burns. Elyan walked behind him with Merlin’s blanket. 

However, as soon as the bedroll and the blanket came in the light of the fire, the knights stopped and frowned. Arthur did so too. Both the blanket and the bedroll were threadbare and full of holes. How the hell did Merlin sleep in that? The problem was solved quickly because in no time, Lancelot and Leon came with their respective own bedroll and blanket. 

Arthur carefully lowered Merlin on the bedroll. Leon draped his blanket over the cape of Gwaine and the knights were pleased to notice that the shivering almost stopped. Percival lowered his own cape over the boy to make sure. 

They stepped back and looked if they were missing something. Arthur frowned. Where was Merlin’s pillow? He turned to Elyan, who was fruitlessly searching the ground where Merlin’s bedroll was for the thing. They soon came to the conclusion that Merlin must have done without a pillow. That wasn’t going to continue. Arthur quickly unfastened his own cape and started to fold it until it was the right size. Gwaine then proceeded to carefully lift the boy’s head while Arthur shoved his cape under it. 

Slowly the knights stepped back. After they reassured themselves that Merlin was indeed as comfortable as possible and that the bandages were still in place. They all walked to the sitting-logs and sat down. Gwaine and Lancelot moved their log behind Merlin, so they could keep an eye on the boy at all times. 

They sat in silence, all of them watching the boy. It was then that Arthur realized that none of them had said anything since he told Leon to go first. There had been a very heavy silence that none of them dared to break, too afraid that if they talked, Merlin might suffer from it. Not that that was likable, but none of them wanted to take the risk of being distracted and not noticing any possible change. 

Merlin seemed unaware of all the attention focused on him. He lay completely still. It made Arthur feel uneasy. Merlin was never still, even in his sleep the boy would mumble and toss. This silence and stillness was not natural. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the obvious rise and fall of his chest, Arthur would have thought him dead. 

They kept sitting around the boy and the fire, none of them said anything. None of them moved to go to sleep, like they actually should. They sat there with bated breath, praying that Merlin wouldn’t suddenly stop breathing. They all knew that they couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything but stare until there was some change, be it for the better or the worse. 

They watched for hours, and Merlin’s face slowly regained some of it’s color and his lips turned back to normal again. The shivering had stopped completely too. But that wasn’t enough change for the knights, they wanted more, some reassurance that Merlin was going to be completely fine. 

It was after they waited for around three hours when they were finally granted their wish. By that time, they all were starting to nod of, but a sigh of Merlin jerked them awake again. They were all tense, ready to help the boy if needed. 

It wasn’t needed though, because it finally looked like the fates were on their sides. Where Merlin had been laying unnaturally still the entire time, that was now over. The boy mumbled a little bit incoherently and rubbed his face a little more in Arthur’s cape. A contented sigh left him, after which he turned on his side and pulled Gwaine’s cape to his ears. He grunted satisfied and turned silent again, deeply sleeping. The poison had left his system and the boy was now sleeping soundly a natural sleep. 

A collective sigh of relief went through the group, their shoulders hunched as they finally allowed the tenseness to leave them. Multiple hands found their owners eyes and rubbed in them. The fatigue of the night finally settling over them. 

Only Arthur wasn’t sleepy but high alert. Because now that the worry over his friend was a little reduced, thoughts of magic and golden eyes came back to the forefront. His mind was flooding with questions all circling about one and the most important of them. 

Was Merlin a sorcerer? 

What if he was? What was Arthur supposed to do then? 

Arthur wanted answers but couldn’t get them since the boy in question was asleep. And Arthur really didn’t fancy waking him. That meant that he had to wait with taking actions till Merlin was awake. But was that indeed the wisest course of action? 

What if Merlin was indeed evil? Then waiting till he was awake might be very dangerous. Arthur hated to think that Merlin was evil but he knew that there was more than just his friendship on the line here. The whole kingdom might be in danger so he couldn’t ignore the possibility. The risk was too high. 

The knights were getting out of their relaxed stances when they obviously also reminded the problem that they had. Arthur knew that he had to make a decision soon. But he really didn’t fancy making it till he knew more. 

So what was he to do? 

His eyes were drawn to the movement that was Lancelot. The knight in question was very tense and had taken a defensive posture. Very careful and slowly he moved his hands to the boy who was sleeping by the fire. His gaze softened noticeably and he smiled fondly. His hands found Leon’s blanket and Percival’s cape, which had slipped off until it was at the boys waist, and pulled them up. He took his time tucking Merlin in, who responded with a contented mumbling, making his stance on the matter very clear. 

Arthur was about to question Lancelot, but the knight was faster than he was. 

“I think we have a lot to talk about,” he said while sitting up straight. 

The knights nodded and Arthur found himself doing so too. 

They wouldn’t get a lot of sleep tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was it.  
> What did you think? Please let me know.  
> Also I just reached the point in which I make a lot of mistakes in basic Dutch grammar when I'm writing my other story.  
> I'm just so used to English now.  
> See you next time.  
> BYEEEEEE


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey here I am again.  
> I don't have a lot to say this time.  
> This chapter won't have much action in it, more talking. So, uhm, sorry for that. I hope you enjoy it anyway.  
> Comments and kudos motivate me.  
> ENJOY THE STORY! :)

“I’ll start from the beginning. You probably already know this part, sire, but I’m afraid that the others don’t and it is important for the rest of the story.

“It all started when I was walking through the woods some years ago and came across a man who was picking herbs, this man was Merlin. I was just in time to see him getting attacked by a griffin and I immediately jumped in to help him. However, when I hit the beast with my sword, the weapon shattered. Merlin and I just managed to hide behind a fallen tree and lost the beast. I was, however, wounded during the fight. Merlin took me to Gaius.”

Arthur nodded, already knowing this part and what was about to come. The other knights had heard some of the story, but never the full one. And they were listening intensely.

“It was just a flesh wound and I healed quickly. When I was better, I told Merlin of my life-dream of becoming a knight of Camelot. Imagine my surprise when he casually said that he would talk to prince Arthur, like it was normal to be able to just talk to the prince. When he came back, I learned of the first code. All my dreams lay shattered at my feet, just because I wasn’t a noble.”

Gwaine grunted at this, understanding the feeling.

“Merlin didn’t give up though, he ran from the room and soon came back with a ‘Seal of Nobility’ claiming me to be sir Lancelot, fifth son of lord Eldred of Northumbria. It was a remarkable good fake-seal and thinking back on it, he probably used magic to make it.”

Arthur blanched at the use of the word ‘magic’ and both Elyan and Leon looked troubled as well, having been raised in Camelot. Gwaine and Percival, however, didn’t looked disturbed in the least and were listening intensely.

“I think Merlin was so intended on making my dream come true, because he had an impossible dream himself, as I learned way later in our friendship. When I thought my dream to become a knight was a big one, it was nothing compared to Merlin’s. He once told me that he dreamed of a golden age of peace and prosperity and of an united Albion, ruled by Arthur. Magic users would be free again and nobody would live in fear. Arthur would be the greatest king Camelot had ever known.

“This was so far away back then, it is still now. I think Merlin wanted my dream to come true to prove to himself that one day his would come true too. That, and because Merlin would do everything for a friend of course.

“When Merlin showed me the seal, I objected, but eventually Merlin managed to convince me. So I became a knight in training. Because Arthur needed more knights, with the griffin destroying village after village, I did the final test quite early and became a knight. But Uther was suspicious and made Geoffrey check the seal. On my first day as a knight, I got arrested. Merlin visited me in the dungeons, feeling incredibly guilty. I tried to convince him, that in the end, it had been my own choice, but he didn’t really believed me.

“Later, prince Arthur visited my cel and told me that he was releasing me against his fathers wishes. There was a horse waiting outside for me and I had to ride as far away from Camelot as possible and never return.”

Lancelot looked at the prince then and gave a bow out of gratitude. He was still very thankful for what the prince did back then. Arthur answered it with a nod on is own, encouraging him to continue his story.

“But our prince also told me that he was going to ride out against the griffin and that, according to Gaius, it could only be killed by magic.”

The knights suddenly tensed in anticipation. They could already guess what was going to come next.

“I might not be a knight anymore, but I still saw it as my duty to protect my prince and country. So instead of running, I asked Guinevere for a full body armor. When I was preparing my horse, however, Merlin ran to me and told me that he was coming with me. I tried to convince him to stay, but you all know Merlin. Once that boy has something in his head...”

The knights smiled, all very familiar with Merlin’s strong headedness. Arthur was tense though. He never knew that Merlin was there that day.

“When we reached the griffin we saw all the knights on the ground. Some were unconscious, like prince Arthur, some were dead. We didn’t had time to mourn them for long however because suddenly the griffin was there. I rode backwards so I could make more speed when I was going to attack him with my lance and lost sight of Merlin.

“When I was riding at the beast, however, I could hear him muttering in the old religion, muttering that soon turned into screaming when nothing happened. Suddenly, my lance was wrapped in cold blue fire. When I hit the griffin, my lance didn’t break but went straight through it’s hide and killed it.”

Lancelot was silent for a moment, letting the information sink in. And it was quite something to let sink in. Arthur was very conflicted, because now that he got real evidence of Merlin’s magic, the hate against magic that had been ingrained in him came back with full force. Merlin was betraying him even then? Apparently Lancelot saw what he was thinking because he focussed on the prince, forcing him to look in his knights eyes.

“He saved your life that day, Arthur. And those of a lot of your knights. He even saved Camelot, because without magic, the beast would have been unstoppable and would have destroyed Camelot. It wasn’t me that killed that griffin. Not only did that blue fire allow me to kill it, it also guided my lance to the right spot, which was slightly more to the right than I would have thought. I was merely a vessel for the spell. But when I came of my horse to congratulate Merlin with his victory, you started to wake up and Merlin ran back to the castle.

“I wanted to give Merlin the credit, but realized that this would betray his secret. When you and king Uther were arguing over my fate, Merlin walked over to me. He congratulated me with my victory and said he was sure that you would make me a knight again. He gave me the credit so easily, not even considering taking it himself. He had went through the entire castle, saying that I killed the beast, in an attempt to make my changes as a knight better.

“But I knew that I didn’t deserve the credit. I didn’t want to become a knight based on an act that wasn’t mine. You should have seen how scared Merlin was when I told him I knew, he probably thought that I would turn him in. I assured him that I would tell nobody, but that I couldn’t take the credit. I walked in on the discussion between you, sire, and your father and said that I had to leave and start again, so maybe one day, I could prove myself a worthy knight of Camelot.”

Lancelot fell silent and everybody let this information sink in. Arthur was really conflicted now. Magic was evil, right? But Merlin wasn’t. The boy saved his live, more than once. He had become a pillar for Arthur to rely on, a friend. He could tell Merlin everything and know that the boy wouldn’t think less of him for that. Because Merlin always saw him as a man, not a prince. Merlin saw him as just Arthur. Yet at the same time, the boy could look at him like Arthur hung up the moon and the stars, just for him. It made Arthur try harder, try being worthy of that look. Was that all fake? Was their friendship fake? Even if it wasn’t, it was based on a lot of lies.

Arthur looked around at the rest of his knights to see their reaction. Gwaine didn’t looked troubled, he probably already accepted Merlin with magic. Percival didn’t show anything on his face, but Arthur suspected that he was on Merlin's side too. He and Lancelot were good friends and he probably trusted the other knight enough to trust Merlin. Both Elyan and Leon looked just as conflicted as he was though, maybe a little less. For Elyan might have been raised in Camelot, he had travelled a lot and seen much. Good magic wasn’t that much of a surprise. Leon was a knight of Camelot in every sense of the word, but he probably also remembered that he was one of those knights that rode out against the griffin. Therefor, Merlin saved his life too. Lancelot seemed to realize that he wasn’t convinced yet (seriously, was he so easy to read?), because he spoke again. The knights all hang at his lips.

“While I traveled, Merlin and I wrote a lot. I always let him know where he was and I would receive a letter from him every week. I think it was nice for him to have someone to talk about his magic too. And writing a letter is easier than talking. There were some things he wrote me, even Gaius didn’t know.”

Arthur’s mind reeled. Gaius had known too? Of course he had known.

“And so I heard of his adventures. I learned of all the girls Arthur was enchanted to fall in love with.”

Gwaine snickered. Arthur felt a slight blush creep up.

“I heard of Edwin, of the unicorn business, of Morgause and the witchfinder. He told me how he defeated Nimueh and destroyed Cornelius Sigan. He told me how he saw Morgana slowly going evil and how everything he tried to do to stop her failed. I laughed with him over king Uther getting married to a troll and over the goblin running havoc, and cried with him over the deads of Freya, Will and his father, Balinor.”

Arthur gasped. Balinor was Merlin’s _father?!_ And who was Freya.

“I listened when he told me how he inherited the dragonlordship when his father died and that when he confronted the dragon, he gave it mercy but forbade it to ever attack Camelot again.”

 _Wait._ The dragon was still _alive?!_

“He told me that everybody he cared about and knew died, save for Gaius and his mother and that he was so scared for me to die. That he was almost certain that there rested a curse on knowing.”

“I always wrote him back with advise and support, I told him about my adventures, but even when I was a traveling wannabe-knight and he was a servant. He was having FAR more adventures than I could possibly have.”

Percival nodded. “I remember this. You used to tell me those stories, without the magic of course. I remember I always thought that Merlin must be some legendary knight or prince or something. I sometimes even wondered if you made it up, but since that is nothing for you, I passed of that idea. Imagine my surprise when I met Merlin and found out that he is a clumsy servant. I first thought that it was another Merlin or something. That was until I really got to know him and realized that he was just the man you described.”

Lancelot turned to Arthur, a strange expression on his face. He was obviously determinated to prove that Merlin wasn’t evil. Arthur felt his gut knot in anticipation what was about to come.

“Freya was a druid girl with who Merlin fell in love. I won’t tell you the whole story, that is too private for Merlin. But I think you should know the headlines. She was captured by a bountyhunter, Merlin had freed her. He had hidden her under the castle and stole food candles and even a dress for her. They were so in love that they planned to run away together.”

Arthur froze. Merlin was going to run away? How had he not known this? Lancelot got a very sad expression on his face.

“She was killed before they could” the knight whispered and he looked away from Arthur, not meeting his eyes. “You killed her.”

Arthur heard several gasps, one of which was his own. He had killed her? Merlin had loved her and he had killed her? How could Merlin not hate him now?

“It broke Merlin’s heart when he had to bury her. In his letters he wrote that he had contemplated to kill himself so he could be with her again, only the thought of leaving you, Arthur, unguarded keeping him from actually doing it.”

Lancelot did look up now and he met Arthur’s eyes.

“Not once did he mention that he was angry with you, or blamed you. He mentioned several times that he blamed himself, however. He said that if he better looked after her, it wouldn’t have happened. If he had convinced you of the good of magic sooner it wouldn’t have happened. When I wrote him back and asked if he blamed you for killing her, he said he didn’t. You believed you were protecting your city, protecting the innocent. It wasn’t your fault because you didn’t know better. It was Merlin's fault because he failed to show you the truth on time. That’s what he believed, and I think he still believes it.”

Arthur was full of shame and guilt. He had killed the girl his best friend was in love with, and the man didn’t even blame him. Instead he blamed himself. Suddenly Gwaine was speaking, his voice was soft, full of grief for his friend. But also full of anger directed at Arthur.

“He contemplated killing himself, how on earth did you miss that princess?”

“Gwaine”

“No! Shut up! You killed the woman he loved and he didn’t even blamed you. You betrayed him and yet he is still loyal to you. And you didn’t even notice! You didn’t even notice when your supposed to be best friend was heartbroken! You didn’t offer a shoulder for him to cry on, you didn't comfort him. Instead, he had to grief in silent for fear of the murderer of his love killing him if he would do it out loud! And still he is loyal to you! And here you are, contemplating if Merlin is evil or not. I’ll tell you what, princess! YOU’RE NOT WORTH HIM!”

Somewhere along his speech, Gwaine had stood up. His voice raised in volume during his speech, just barely keeping his voice down enough to not wake Merlin. When he was done, he stood behind Merlin, seething with anger and Arthur felt so incredibly guilty. Because Gwaine was right, he didn’t deserve Merlin. When had the boy been anything other than loyal and self-sacrificing? He was always kind and good-hearted. And here Arthur was, thinking he was evil. It was wrong, so utterly wrong. Merlin wasn’t evil, and Arthur was not worth his friendship if he thought otherwise.

And yet, yet there was still a little piece of his heart that didn’t believe it. Because if Merlin wasn’t evil, then that would mean that magic wasn’t all evil. And Arthur wasn’t so ready to just accept that. Because that would mean that his father was wrong, that his entire life was a lie. That would mean that so many innocent people died because Arthur couldn’t see the truth. If not all magic was evil, then Arthur’s entire life would be thrown upside down. It would mean that Uther was a murderer who killed the innocent. And that Arthur was too. How many magic users did he kill? Were they actually innocent? Was he the evil-one?

No, Arthur couldn’t just accept that.

So even when he understood and accepted that Merlin wasn’t evil, even when he felt enormously guilty, there was still a little voice in his head (a voice that sounded suspiciously like his father) that told him that there was no such thing as good magic. He still wasn’t ready to just accept that magic could be good. He had seen it used for evil too many times. Maybe Merlin was just an exception. Yes, that must be the case. Merlin was just too kindhearted to be corrupted by magic. But maybe the corruption would come later? No, Arthur wouldn’t allow that. He would keep a close eye on his friend and stop him when he went too far, whatever it took. 

He and Merlin were going to have a long talk when the boy woke up.

When Arthur wasn’t replying, Gwaine got as red as a tomato. The knight was about to jump on his prince and do something what would have probably been treason, hadn’t Lancelot forcefully grasped his arm and pulled him down. Gwaine shot the knight an angry look but complied anyway when Lancelot muttered: “Stop Gwaine, you’ll only make it worse for Merlin.”

After that, the knights let Arthur to his thoughts, struggling with their own. They stayed awake the rest of the night, none of them being really tired (must be the vampire blood) and none of them willing to leave Merlin unguarded. There wasn’t much talking but light conversations, but they all had a silent agreement that it was better this way. Everybody had a lot to progress and talking further about it wouldn’t help anybody, least of all Merlin.

The boy in question lay by the fire, sleeping deeply and enjoying the good quality of his new bedroll, blankets and pillows. He was blissfully unaware of all the eyes that watched him through the night and of the maelstrom of thoughts that accompanied those eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is getting WAY longer than I originally anticipated.   
> Anyway,  
> See you next time!


	8. chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Peeks out from under the stone I have been living under*  
> Uhm, hey guys. Sorry I'm late. You forgive me, right. Right?  
> *Gets rocks thrown at me. Yelps and hides under rock*  
> I'm really really sorry! And this time I don't even have an amazing chapter to make it right.  
> The point was that I have had a busy week.  
> And, well, this chapter was a hell to write.  
> I think that was because I didn't really knew were I was going with this.  
> I mean, I knew where I would start and how I wanted to finish this chapter but the road there was very misty and unsure.  
> I have rewritten this chapter like 20 times before I was pleased enough.  
> Good thing: It does have more action than the last two.  
> And the next one will have even more ation.  
> yaaay!  
> Enjoy the chapter!  
> Leave comments and kudos.

When the morning came and the sun was bound to come up in an hour, Arthur stood up and addressed his knights.

“Lets break up camp, I want to be able to leave as soon as the sun is up.”

The knights nodded and silently went to work to build of camp, make the horses ready, fill the water skins and make breakfast. The jobs Merlin normally did, all by his own, but they would be damned if they woke the boy before it was necessary. So Merlin was sleeping soundly while his superiors did his job. Gwaine only knew how to make soup, which was still one thing more than the others knew, so he was cooking. It was when everything except Merlin's sleeping stuff was loaded on the horses and Gwaine had finished breakfast, that the inevitable couldn’t be delayed anymore. Lancelot kneeled by his pale friend and gently shook him awake.

Merlin stirred and mumbled before lazily opening one eye. Lancelot smiled at him. The boy smiled tiredly back and sat up. Lance’s steady hand on his arm keeping him from falling over. Sleep has done obviously wonders to the boy, but he was still way too pale - matching the bandage wrapped around his neck - and he had heavy bags under his eyes, even though he had slept more than any of them that nights. Gwaine handed his a bowl of soup and some bread and the boy started to eat.

Merlin was rather enjoying his soup - it was surprisingly good - when he noticed all the eyes on him. The knights were eating too, but their eyes never left the boy. It made Merlin feel rather uncomfortable and he shifted a little. Immediately all the knights gave up the pretense of eating and stared at him intently, like he was about to fall over any moment. It made Merlin feel even more uncomfortable. He understood that they would be a little overprotective, but, tjeez, he wasn’t made of sugar. The tension in the air was so thick it nearly suffocated him, which was a rather unpleasant experience given how his neck was already throbbing painfully. Time to lighten the mood.

“Looks like I’m not dead, eh?”

Gwaine snorted. “Wouldn’t be so sure of that mate. You’re doing an impressive job of trying to look like it.”

Merlin made a point of looking offended. “Oi! I’ll let you know that I overpower all of you lot with my handsome looks.”

The knights snickered, but the tension remained. It was almost like they knew something that he didn’t. Merlin frowned and opened his mouth to ask what was wrong when Arthur beat him to it.

“Come on, eat up everyone. I want to move.”

Everybody ate the rest of their food quickly and stood up. Leon approached Merlin and started to carefully unwind the bandage at his neck. It was then that Merlin realized that everything was done already. He smirked a little.

“Hang on, did you guys took over my chores?”

Their faces turned as red as a tomato, and Merlin had a hard time not laughing, even though Leon washing the wounds again hurt a lot and nearly made him flinch.

“Of course we did, you idiot. If we had to wait for you to do it, then we could only move when the sun was already starting to sink.”

That was unfair, and Arthur knew it. Luckily Merlin wasn’t really affected by it. He did found that he had to make his point though. “You didn’t had to, I could’ve done it myself” he mumbled but he knew that Arthur heard.

Leon finished refreshing the bandage and Merlin stood up. Suddenly the world started to spin and he felt incredibly dizzy and weak. His vision turned black for a moment. He didn’t realize he was falling until he felt two strong hands catching him and carefully lowering him to the ground. He waited a few seconds to wait till his vision stopped spinning and looked up to Leon’s worried expression, the other knights were behind the curly haired man, looking equally as worried.

“You alright, mate?” Percival asked worried. Merlin flashed him his most brilliant smile.

“ ‘Course I am. Just a little dizzy, will get over in no time.” After all, he wouldn’t want the knights to worry over him. It didn’t seem to work though. Ignoring his protest, Percival and Lancelot accompanied him to his horse and didn’t leave his side until he was seated on it. Merlin was secretly a little glad that they did though, he didn’t fancy another fall.

His bedroll, of which Merlin suddenly realized that it wasn’t _his_ bedroll, was cleared away quickly and before he knew it, they were on their way. When they started to ride, Arthur spoke up.

“We have to move quickly and reach our goal before sundown. We cannot allow any more delay. By sundown we have to have reached the vampire’s hideout.”

The knights nodded grimly. That was logical, as they wanted to find the vampire as soon as possible. Merlin was blissfully unaware of the real reason of their hurry.

The tension during the ride was almost suffocating. The knights kept glancing at their prince - even more than usual - and seemed very uncomfortable and nervous. Arthur himself sat rigid and stiff on his horse. The prince stared only ahead, he ignored the knights and wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes.

Merlin might have noticed there was another reason for the tension other than the obvious, had he paid attention to it. At the moment, he was too busy staying on his horse and pretending to be fine to pay attention to anything else. They could have been attacked by the vampire right now and he probably wouldn’t even notice.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arthur had told himself that he would talk to Merlin about the magic as soon as they were riding. But when they were on the road, he kept coming up with excuses that stopped him from actually doing it. He knew he was just procrastinating the unpreventable, but he just wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready to face his best friends betrayal yet. He didn’t new what to say or ask and he was definitely not ready for Merlin's answers. Would the boy deny it, or confess it all? Or - Arthur hated to think about this option - or would he laugh in Arthur’s face and turn out to be evil all the time? Arthur didn’t knew if he was ready for that, ready for the heartbreak that it would bring.

So yes, Maybe he was a coward. But at the moment, Arthur didn’t care because he wasn’t bloody ready! It was also ridiculous easy to distract himself.

Also, there was another problem, something which gave him a lot of excuses to not think of magic. and that was the hunger, for even though it was small, it was already growing again.

“We have to move quickly and reach our goal before sundown. We cannot allow any more delay. By sundown we have to have reached the vampire’s hideout.”

When he had said that, Merlin seemed to think that they wanted the vampire found as soon as possible and while that was true, it wasn’t the real reason. The real reason was that if they had to stop for the night again, they had a big problem. Cause Arthur never wanted to drink his friends blood again. But if they had to stop for the night, they might don’t have another choice. The other knights seemed aware of this too.

Another good let’s-think-about-this-instead-of-the-magic subject was Arthur’s sudden awareness of Merlin. Not that he just paid more attention to the boy, - which he did anyway but that isn’t the point - but that he was literally more aware. He could tell that Merlin was riding just behind Leon, not because he saw, but because he somehow _knew._

It was like that bond he had when he drank his blood and for a moment realized how it was to be Merlin, hadn’t faded entirely. Like there was still a little bit of it in him. It felt as though he was carrying a little piece of Merlin's soul in his body. There was a piece of his mind that was solely Merlin’s and in which he just _knew_ he was carrying a piece of Merlin's soul. He knew this because the little piece felt 100% and utterly _Merlin_. He still didn’t knew how to describe the boy - he probably never would - but he knew that this was it. That this feeling he had in the back of his mind was exactly what Merlin was, only smaller.

The piece of soul in his mind was whirling with emotions, as could be expected. Sometimes a certain emotion sprung out but most of the time, Arthur couldn’t decide which emotion was which. 

Arthur wondered if the knights had a piece of Merlin in their minds too. Looking at their eyes, which were glazed over yet still awed but also confused (a combination Arthur didn’t even knew was possible), they indeed had. Also, Merlin was riding in the back, but none of the knights had looked back to ensure that he was still there. A very good indicator that they indeed felt it too. 

Was Merlin aware of what he felt? Maybe even more importantly, would Merlin feel their emotions too?

The tracks were even more obvious than last day and ran now in a straight line instead of criss-cross. It was now clear for even the dumbest of man that it was meant as a trap. Given that they were all supposed to be insane now, would probably explain the change. Arthur could only hope that they could use this to their advantage to kill the vampire.

How would they kill the vampire? It was clear what his plan had been. But what was going to be their plan? Weren’t they supposed to be faster and stronger or something? Arthur sure as hell didn’t feel stronger, just tired. He also didn’t saw or heard any better. The only thing that had noticeable approved was his sense of smell, which was kinda useless during a fight and very distracting (especially when one of the horses decided to pee. Man he never wanted to smell _that_ EVER AGAIN). 

Although he did noticed that Gwaine almost threw himself over the horse when he tried mounting it, and Lancelot was ridiculously fast done with his chores that day.

Damn, of all the people gaining the useless extra, it had to be him. Merlin was never going to let him live this down.

Suddenly, Arthur was aware of something pressing his mind from the piece of Merlin’s soul. He couldn’t quite decipher what it was. And to be honest, it was already midday and he hadn’t slept all night, he was tired. So he ignored it. It grew stronger first, pleading for attention. But after that it retreated, if fact, the whole soul-piece retreated until it was in the darkest corner of Arthur’s mind. For some reason that made Arthur very worried, which in turn annoyed him greatly. It kept nagging though, so Arthur snapped and turned around to ask the idiot what the hell was wrong, when he froze on his saddle.

Merlin was hunched over his saddle looking very sick. His pale and sweat covered face raised a little so Arthur saw Merlin’s eyes with pupils blown of sickness. The bandage on the boy’s neck was drenched in sweat and so was his shirt. Yet, he was shivering like a mad man. Merlin’s eyes met Arthur’s and for a moment neither of them moved.

The moment was broken by Merlin's eyes rolling into their sockets. All Arthur could do was give a short shout of warning before Merlin slid of his horse, unconscious. The knights shouted surprised and immediately dismounted their horses to come to the boy’s aid. Arthur was there first, having reacted first.

He turned the boy around and cursed. So up close his friend looked even worse. His hair was sticking to his forehead and he had huge bags under his eyes. Heavy tremors wreaked his body and reminded Arthur of how he looked at the end of the drinking yesterday. Even though the boy was sweating like madness, he was cold to the touch.

Arthur cursed himself for not noticing the boy going in relapse. The point was, they had all so much to think about and all of them could feel the presence of Merlin so none of them thought too much about it when the boy ended up riding behind. And because of this maelstrom of thoughts Arthur was having, he failed to notice Merlin feeling sicker and sicker. Even when he had a _bloody piece of his soul_ in his mind. Even when the boy tried to warn him by pushing to his conscience, probably because he hadn’t the energy left to call out, Arthur didn’t notice. He really was the worst friend ever.

Behind him he heard Gwaine cursing but he didn’t paid much attention to it. He quickly undid his cape and in no time he had Merlin wrapped up in it. Gwaine and Lancelot helpfully offered their own but Arthur declined. Merlin had already stopped shivering and it would do the boy no good either if they wrapped him up too much.

Now they had a problem though. Merlin was still unconscious, but they couldn’t afford to stop riding. Arthur quickly computed the pros and cons of every option and soon came to a decision.

“Lancelot, you’ll ride with him”

The knight in question nodded and took the boy out of his arms. Gwaine looked angry and disappointed at him, like he thought that Arthur had made the wrong decision. If it was because the knight thought that they had to stop and let Merlin rest, or that he thought that he should be the one to ride with Merlin, Arthur didn’t care. He stiffly rose and mounted his horse again. 

When Merlin was positioned and secured in front of Lancelot and Merlin’s mare tied to Elyan’s horse, they wasted no time to start riding again. 

Now he still hadn’t talked to the boy. Damn.

When the sun was sinking and the shadows grew longer, Merlin finally woke up. He was flushed and didn’t seem to be completely in the present, but at least he was conscious, which was a good sign. Arthur decided to let Lancelot continue riding with the boy, seeing as he didn’t wanted a repeat of last time.

They talked only smalltalk, for the rest they were silent. It was weird for this group to ride in silent. Mostly, when the silence went on for too long, either Gwaine or Merlin would break it with a hilarious but weird story. But Merlin was half asleep leaning against Lancelot and Gwaine seemed to be pissed at Arthur for some reason and kept silent. So their once so happy and merry group was reduced to them riding in an awkward and heavy silence, only broken by Lancelot’s soft murmurs to Merlin when the boy got uneasy. Arthur wondered if this was it, if this was the event that had broken their group. He felt a pang of lost and grief going over him at that thought. He already now missed the banter and merriness that usually accompanied them. Maybe he could have tried to break the silence, but he was afraid of what it would bring. 

They rode on until the sun was almost under, Arthur was getting restless. They had to find something, now! They couldn’t spent another night like the last one, Merlin surely wouldn’t survive it. When the sun kept sinking and Arthur was getting desperate enough to suggest that they rode on the entire night, even though none of them had slept last night, they rounded a corner and finally, _finally,_ they found what they so desperately needed.

In front of them rose a castle of dark stone. It wasn’t so much a castle as a fort, heavily armed. It was built half in the rock cliff which rose behind it and which they stupidly hadn’t noticed before. It was camouflaged well, and was located on a spot nobody would ever just come. If it wasn’t for the tracks, Arthur was sure they would never have found it. But they had found it now and Arthur was sure, could feel it, that the vampire was inside.

It was time to take revenge.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys.  
> Here is the new chapter. I start to get the feeling that I'm losing you guys. In the beginning I had so much enthousiastic comments and everything, and now not. I'm writing this story because I made it up and I wanted to share it. I like writing but if you don't like this story anymore then I'll just write something else. Maybe I'm reading the signs wrong, but I would like to ask: If you like my story and wish that I continue, leave a comment. It doesn't have to be long or heartfelt. Just let me know if you like it. And if something can go better, please let me know too.  
> Anyway, this chapter has a fighting scene in it, the first I ever wrote. I hope i did it right.  
> Enjoy!

Somewhere in his mind, there was a voice who told Arthur that it was a stupid idea. It was his strategic voice, which sounded suspiciously like his strategy teacher from when he was younger. It told him that it was a stupid idea ‘a la grandé’, possibly his most stupid idea ever. And Arthur could see it’s point.

Here they were, six exhausted and hungry knights/half-vampires - who didn’t knew the extend of their supposed new powers - and a semi-conscious servant who happens to have magic and might not be trusted at all, oh and who also lost quite some blood the night before and looked like he best spend the next week in bed. Also, they had no idea how strong the vampire was, or how to kill it. They only knew that he was pretty damn smart and had some magical powers, to be able to pull that stunt with his blood from earlier. Oh and beside that, they didn’t knew the perimeter, the floor map of the castle, or how many men (or vampires or what the hell else) the vampire had under him. He might even be all on his own, and they wouldn’t bloody know. The enemy had the advantage of _do_ knowing it AND of the fact that vampires were stronger in the night.

So yes, attacking was a ridiculously stupid plan, but the alternative wasn’t pretty either. Because the alternative would be stopping for the night, which would mean that they all had to have some blood again. And looking at the pale boy in front of his knight’s saddle, Arthur wasn’t sure if Merlin would survive that. Either way, they would end up even more tired (because there was no way they would be able to sleep with a vulnerable, weak and possibly _dead_ Merlin left unprotected), and they wouldn’t win anything. Because exploring the perimeter was too much of a risk. Also, if the vampire expected them to come insane, he would be suspicious if they didn’t, which would ruin the surprise attack.

All with all, Arthur wasn’t going to risk that. But before they attacked, he had to know Merlin’s precise condition. If he was too bad, Arthur would have no choice but to leave him with one of the knights, which he desperately wanted to avoid. Not only would that mean one fighter less, but also would it leave Merlin more unprotected than he was willing to risk. No, separation was not a good option, but if Merlin was unconscious, then he was in a lot more danger if he came with them. He turned around to Lancelot. And was immensely relieved and surprised when it was not the knight that answered his question.

“How is he?”

“I’m fine, you prat. You won’t get rid of me so easily.”

Arthur was immensely relieved to hear his friends voice, it was a good sign. His friend looked a lot better that he did the last time Arthur dared to look over his shoulder to him. His cheeks had regained some of their color, and he seemed more in the presence than he was before. Yet, he had to be sure.

“Are you sure yo-”

 “I’m bloody fine, you clotpole. Couldn’t have been better.”

Arthur smiled to himself. A grumpy Merlin was better than an unconscious Merlin. If Merlin could bicker, then he’ll manage. His decision was made then, Merlin was going to join them on their fight against the vampire. He dismounted his horse and was soon followed by the others. He was delighted to notice that Merlin seemed able to stand on his own. He did wobble a bit though, Arthur would have to keep a close eye on him during the fight. He motioned the knights to get closer, so he could explain his plan of to surprise the vampire and defeat him.

He didn’t got the change though. Just when he opened his mouth to explain, he was interrupted by a war cry. A war cry that definitely didn’t come from somebody of their group. They all whipped their head around to the castle, only to see about a dozen men running towards them, screaming and waving with their swords.

So much for the surprise attack. Damn.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zanobi frowned displeased. He was standing on the battlements of his castle, looking down on his own man attacking the prince and his knights. He had expected them to come here insane and turned into a full vampire. That way they would have been easy for him to dominate. A sane vampire could disobey their maker, an insane one couldn’t. But when he had looked down during his usual nightly walk over the battlements and saw the knights, it soon became clear that they were absolutely not insane, or undead. If they were, he would have heard them coming and there wouldn’t be any horses, for those surely must have been killed by their owners.

His plan did work though, he was sure of that. He could feel the now still weak connection between the men and himself. He could feel his blood running through their veins. The only conclusion was that the prince must have found a human to drink from, something he didn’t guess the oh-so-noble prince of Camelot would ever do.

It didn’t matter, this was just a setback. All he had to do was capture them. They could be kept till they went insane and THEN killed. That way he would get what he wanted. And if some of them were killed during the progress, then that wouldn’t matter that much either. They’d be bound to him anyway.

Zanobi had a dozen or so men under him. Petty humans, but very useful. Being such an old vampire as he was, he had discovered how he could change the effects of the poison in his fangs. All he had to do was make it enjoyable and addicting. He snuggled some people away here and there and made them addicts to his fangs. They would do anything for him AND he got to drink whenever he liked. A win-win situation. Smiling he turned around and faced his second-in-command.

“Get them”

The man nodded and ran away.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Merlin knew it was bad news when the men attacked. This meant that they lost their most important advantage: the surprise attack. Although it was clear that the men (and some women) advancing were humans and medium sword fighters at the most, they were with almost twice as many as they were. And it meant that the vampire knew they were there.

Around him the clanging sound of swords being drown were heard. Arthur raised his sword and with a ‘for Camelot!’ they all ran towards the advancing men. Merlin stayed behind and hoped that he didn’t have to use his magic, he would like to spare his energy.

The fight was started and Merlin followed the knights with his eyes, while never taking his eyes of his prince. It was an art he had perfected over time.

While the men were definitely less sword fighters than the knights, and they only outnumbered them two to one, it was still a though fight. The knights were all exhausted and hungry, but not only that, they seemed to be distracted all the time and Merlin soon came to the conclusion that if he didn’t do something, they were going to lose.

Merlin saw how sir Elyan faltered and grabbed at his ears when his sword came in contact with his enemy’s shield. He could barely bring it up in time to avoid a fatal hit, but his face contorted with pain every time their swords met.

Sir Percival kept squinting and every time the weapons of his opponents glinted in the sun, he winced.

Sir Gwaine actually seemed to do great in the beginning, just like Lancelot. But Merlin soon noticed that they weren’t totally in control. Gwaine seemed to keep underestimating his own strength, and Lancelot ran past his opponents, only to come to a confused stop and turn back just in time to block his opponents sword.

Arthur had his nose pulled up in distaste, like he was smelling something really unpleasant. Which was weird. Sure, his opponents probably weren’t that keen on hygiene, but Arthur had fought bad smelling bandits before and it never seemed to bother him that much.

Leon seemed to do fine, right until one point. In which he suddenly tensed and screamed. “Arthur! He’s here! The vampire is here!”

“Regroup!”

The knights ran back to the horses to regroup. The vampire’s men (or those that hadn’t been killed) took this as a sign to catch their breath. The two camps stood opposite of each other. But the knights had their attention more at their surroundings. They were all frantically searching for the real enemy.

“There!” Percival saw him first and pointed at the battlements. Merlin vaguely saw the silhouette of the vampire standing on the wall. Suddenly he spread his arms, his cape coming with them until it looked like he had wings. The torch behind him made him look taller and more intimidating.

Yup, they were dealing with a drama-queen.

The clearing seemed to hold their breath. Suddenly the vampire fell forwards, off the wall and to the ground. But just when he was nearly there and Merlin was sure that gravity would do the job for them, he spread his arms once more and flied high up in the sky. His silhouette visible against the background of the full moon.

Bloody hell, he’s even more of a drama-queen than Gwaine and Arthur combined.

But he was a powerful drama-queen, Merlin had to give him that. Flying without an object to vessel the spell (those stories about witches flying on brooms are not completely nonsense) was very hard and the vampire must be very strong to be able to do so.

The vampire landed in front of his men and smiled evilly at their group. A heartbeat passed in which everyone seemed to hold their breaths. Then Arthur trusted his sword in the air.

“For the love of Camelot!”

The knights repeated their slogan and ran to their enemies. The residual men wanted to attack them but the vampire held them back with his hand. He spoke quietly to his command before stepping forward. The knights had reached him in seconds and the fight started.

Merlin didn’t like it one bit. There were too many things that could go wrong, too many things they didn’t knew. He pushed himself off the horse he was leaning against and took a few unsteady steps to the battlefield. He knew that he was in no shape to fight, but without him Arthur would lose. He was too weak for long distance magic, he had to get closer. While he slowly and unsteadily walked to the fight, he kept a hawk’s eye on the fight.

Lancelot had been the first to reach the vampire, but when the noble knight raised his sword to strike, the vampire simply vanished and reappeared a few meters to the side. Lancelot struggled to keep his balance when his sword found nothing but thin air. 

Luckily Leon had reached the vampire and attacked him before the creature could take advantage of Lancelot’s weakness. His sword met the vampire’s black one (seriously, did that guy have to do _everything_ in black). Leon started to break out sweat while he tried to hold back the sword with two hands. The vampire smirked and held his sword loosely in one hand. Leon was a strong and well respected knight but the vampire didn’t even blink an eye while he forced him to sink on his knees by sheer force.

Then Percival was there and the vampire was forced to break contact with Leon to block his sword. The strong knight wasn’t about to make the same mistake as his friend and as soon as their swords met, he clashed them of to the side before the vampire could put too much power in the attack. But before he was even able to bring his sword in position again, the vampire struck his knee in the knights stomach with unnatural speed and strength. The strong knight fell on his knees and then the ground, a moan barely able to leave his lips.

He was immediately replaced with both Gwaine and Elyan, who decided that a double attack was the best course of action. They weren’t even able to touch the vampire with their swords before they were thrown back several feet. The vampire’s eyes swiveled red before changing back to their original black. 

This all had taken merely seconds. The vampire turned around where an Angry Arthur stood, about to face the prince. Behind him a panting Lancelot and a wobbly Leon took their places. They stood still for a moment, neither of them breaking the tension between them. The vampire smirked at them, he didn’t even seemed tired.

Merlin was about five meter away from the fight now. It was obvious that he HAD to do something. But he didn’t dare, he was afraid of what Arthur would do if he found out about his magic. Especially now, when it looked like he was angry with Merlin for some reason. But he didn’t know a way how he could use magic undetected. There weren’t any trees or rocks which he could use. And the risk was too high, the vampire too strong. There was no other way. Even if he wouldn’t survive it, Arthur’s life was more important than his own.

Arthur yelled and attacked, Lancelot and Leon close behind him.

Merlin glanced Lancelot’s way while he prepared a spell. Would the knight protect him? He hoped not, he didn’t want to bring his friend in unnecessary danger. He closed his eyes and went through his mind for the correct spell. He hadn’t read anything about that yet, didn’t have the time. But Merlin was sure the vampire couldn’t be killed by an ordinary blade. Maybe he could try the same spell as with the griffin?

Merlin was ripped out of his thoughts when he heard a scream. A terribly familiar scream. His eyes shot open and he watched in horror how the vampire pulled his sword out of Arthur’s belly. The prince fell on his knees to the ground, joining his knights who lay there unconscious. 

Merlin stared at the prince. _his_ prince. _his Arthur_.

All thoughts of a plan were ripped out of his mind. All he saw was Arthur. All he heard was his prince’s ragged breathing. He felt the little part of him in Arthur, his gateway to his friend, ebbing away while his life slowly left the prince.

No. NO. _NO._

An almost inhuman scream left his lips, full of grief and anger. 

He barely noticed the vampire and his men getting thrown back so hard they hit the castle wall. He didn’t pay attention to them when their broken bodies fell to the ground, leaving an imprint in the wall. All he saw was Arthur, _his_ Arthur, and the life that slowly ebbed out of him.

Even when Merlin’s own body gave out - the burst of magic too much for his body to take - and the world turned black around him, he kept his eyes fixed on his prince for as long as he could. He lay on the ground for a few moments, just staring at his prince, until his sight left him too and everything went black.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zanobi clenched his teeth while he slowly stood up. The magic that had thrown him back had been strong, very strong. But it wasn’t enough to kill him. It was, however, enough to break almost every bone in his body. The healing progress would be very painful indeed. The centuries old vampire ground his teeth together and just stopped a moan from leaving his mouth. He willed the healing progress to go faster, even though it would hurt more. He looked around while his bones reset himself. All his toys, his men lay dead and unrecognizable on the ground. It didn’t take a genius to realize they were dead. He slowly stood up and walked to where the knights lay unconscious on the ground. While walking, the last of his bones reset and he let out a small cry of pain.

The big knight groaned and tried to sit up, but a wave of Zanobi’s hand and a flash of red eyes made him fall unconscious to the ground once more. The vampire walked past the men, past the prince and his knights, right till he came by the lone boy laying on the ground. He was so stupid, so _stupid._ He didn’t even notice a warlock right under his very nose. He had seen the boy’s eyes turn golden, the sign of a warlock. He gritted his teeth in pain and annoyance when he noticed that his body wasn’t able to measure the boy’s magic yet. But he did notice the lack of his blood in the boy. 

The last of Zanobi’s bruises disappeared while he watched the boy with pure unadulterated hatred. Nobody had made him cry out in pain for _centuries!_ No one was strong enough to even get close to him. And now this _boy_ , had broken all his bones, killed his men, weakened his castle AND disrupted his plan. 

He would regret it. He would regret ever setting a foot on this earth and deciding to protect a Pendragon no less! Zanobi would make him regret it.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAND, there we go. Chapter 10 already.  
> I wanted to thank you guys for your amazing comments on the last chapter. More than one of you told me that sometimes there is nothign to comment, but that didn't mean that they didn't read and enjoyed the chapter. I understand this now and you guys can be reassured that I won't abandon the story.
> 
> However, my school has started again. I have no idea how that will affect my writing, it might take some longer to write the next chapter. But rest be assured that I won't abandon the story.
> 
> Btw, did any of you figured out what the name Zanobi means yet? I still can't believe it was an actual roman name, given what it means. First person figuring it out will be mentioned in the next notes as the winner.
> 
> Enjoy the story!  
> BYEEEE

The first thing Merlin noticed is that he felt better than he would have thought. The burst of magic had exhausted him, but the sleep he got after it allowed his body to get some much needed rest. Although his magic did feel very sore (how could it feel sore? It wasn’t like it was an actual body part or something. Right?) he felt physical better. He doubted he would be able to repeat that much magic though.

Wait. Hold on.

_Arthur!_

It was this last thought that woke Merlin completely, his eyes shot open and he sat upright with a gasp. He frantically looked around, searching for his master and friend.

He immediately knew that they were in BIG trouble.

Merlin was sitting on the floor in a cell in what he guessed was the dungeon. The dungeon was rectangular. There was a walking path in the middle, with cells on each side. At both the ends of the walking path were huge fortified doors. The cells were made of one wall of stone and three of iron bars and were 2 by 2 meters big. A quick glance around him told Merlin that he was alone in his cell, the knights all had separate cells and in the cell next to his right was ... Arthur.

His prince was laying on his back, his face was deathly pale and his lips were blue. His shirt was soaked with blood and there lay a puddle of it under him.

No, no, no, no, NO!

Merlin scrambled to the bars and pressed his face against it. He frantically searched Arthurs face, looking for some sign of life. When he found nothing satisfying he searched in his mind to his friend. He once again, found nothing. He was vaguely aware that the knights were calling him. Telling him to give up, that Arthur was gone. That they shouldn’t waste time but try to come up with a plan of revenge. But Merlin ignored them. He closed his eyes and went deeper in his own mind, searching for some sign of Arthur.

He found nothing.

Merlin sighed. This was it, he had failed his destiny, failed Arthur. He opened his eyes and noticed tears leaking out of them. They didn’t matter, Arthur was dead. That was all that mattered.

Suddenly, there was a spark. It wasn’t much and one might oversee it, but Merlin was so desperate he immediately grasped it and hold on to it. It was a little spark of Arthur. Merlin’s spirit grew, maybe it wasn’t too late. Maybe he could save him.

He pressed himself against the bars and reached out with his hand for his Prince. Arthur’s hand was just out of his reach. Why did his cell have to be bigger? Now he was harder to reach. The knights reacted surprised and felt silent at first. But soon they seemed to realize that Merlin had a plan of some sort and they started to encourage him. Merlin pressed himself even more against the bars and stretched himself as far as he could. His fingers brushed over Arthur’s. Merlin grabbed on his middle finger and pulled. Arthur moved slightly towards him, not much but enough for Merlin to grab his hand. He pulled again and soon Arthur lay beside him, only the bars separating them.

Merlin’s fingers trembled while he pushed them against Arthur’s neck. He found no pulse. But the spark was there, motivating Merlin to try again. He pushed as hard as he could and then felt it. The tiniest and weakest pulse Merlin had ever felt, but it was there. So there was hope.

The servant let out a shout of victory and before he knew it the knights were cheering.

Merlin didn’t cheer with them, Arthur may be alive but he wouldn’t be anymore in a matter of seconds. It was a wonder he was even still alive (probably some vampire shit again). Merlin wracked his brain for a solution. Now he was given hope, he wouldn’t allow it to be taken from him again.

He nervously looked at the knights. If they didn’t know before, they would certainly know after this. But it didn’t matter, Arthur was more important.

“Please don’t hate me”, he whispered. He then placed his hands on Arthur’s stomach and glanced one more time at the knights. They all looked at him with dread and expectation. Merlin hated that he was going to disappoint them. But there was no moment or time to lose.

“ágíeman”

Merlin knew immediately that it didn’t work. He frowned and tried something different.

“batian ... gelácnian ... háligan! ... lácnian!”

Nothing he tried worked. Maybe it was because he was so awful at healing, or because of his magic being so weak now. Merlin hated to think that he was the cause of Arthur’s dead. But if he didn’t find something soon, his friend would die and it would be Merlin's fault.Merlin wiped away some frustrated tears and tried something more difficult this time.

“þurhhælan”

This time he knew it worked. He could feel his eyes changing color and his magic pouring into Arthur. He lifted his shaking hands of Arthur’s wound and ... found out that nothing had changed. He let out a cry of frustration. Why didn’t it work! Maybe the vampire’s sword was enchanted. Or maybe a half-vampire couldn’t-

Suddenly realization dawned on Merlin and he laughed relieved. Of course! That would work. After all, the book had said that half-vampires could heal themselves. Arthur hadn’t, so that could only mean one thing.

A look of determination crossed Merlin’s face when he removed his now sticky hands of Arthur’s wound and placed his right one over his left wrist.

“Uhm, Merlin, what are you doing?”

Merlin ignored Gwaine in favor of saying the needed spell.

“sníðung”

Merlin winced when his magic made a horizontal cut on his wrist, just deep enough to reach the vein.

“Merlin!”

He ignored the outburst and protests of the knights, instead he raised his hand through the bars over Arthur’s mouth. His wrist hovered millimeters of Arthur’s lips, almost touching them, while his blood began to drip in the man’s mouth.

“Come on Arthur, swallow. You have to swallow. I know you can do it. Come on.”

Merlin kept whispering encouragements while his blood dripped in his best friends mouth. For a moment, nothing happened. Then suddenly, very slowly, Arthur swallowed. Merlin let out a relieved laugh, this was going to work!

“Yes! Well done Arthur! Swallow!”

The knights had felt silent, realizing this was the only option but not liking it anyway. Arthur swallowed a few more times. Merlin looked at the wound. It wasn’t working yet, Arthur needed more blood. So he pressed his wrist lightly to Arthur’s lips.

“Suck Arthur. I know you can do it. Suck.”

Merlin kept whispering and after a few moments, Arthurs pouted his lips, till they circled the cut and started to suck. First it was barely noticeable, but Arthur kept sucking harder and harder until he managed to get a full mouthful with every suck.

Merlin, who had first encouraged Arthur, started to feel very dizzy. He looked at the wound and noticed to his delight that the edges were glowing gold and were, very slowly, knitting together. He decided that this had to be enough. Arthur was healing and he was still conscious, that was more than he expected. He pulled his arm back.

“Okay Arthur, that is enough.”

But as soon as his wrist left Arthur’s lips, the prince made a strangled animalistic sound. Before Merlin had time to react, Arthur’s arms shot up, grasping Merlin’s arm in an iron like grip. He brought the arm to his mouth again and started sucking with all his might.

Merlin started to panic and tried to pull his arm away, but it didn’t work. Even under normal circumstances Arthur was way stronger than Merlin. 

“Arthur! Time to let go! Please, Arthur!”

The knights were shouting too, but since they were in different cells, they couldn’t do anything.

Arthur’s eyes shot open, his irises a blood red. Merlin got into full-blown panic now. He tried pulling back with all his might, but Arthur wouldn’t bulge. His vision started to swim and he had to put his right hand now in a weak attempt to not fall over. He stopped pulling, having lost the energy, instead he whispered.

“Arthur, please.”

But wherever his friend was, he couldn’t reach him.  Arthur opened his mouth a little more, and Merlin let out a cry of pain when he pushed his fangs in the cut and wiggled them, widening the cut. Merlin managed one last weak pull, before the poison started to spread and he fell to the ground. The last thing he noticed before he went fully under, was the panicked shouts of the knights.

Then he knew no more.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arthur felt like he was falling. Like he fell away from his body and everything he hold dear but couldn’t stop falling. It was horrible. And he kept falling and falling and he knew that soon, he would land.

Suddenly, there was something sweet and wonderful in his mouth. He swallowed on instinct. An explosion of feelings and emotions erupted and it was simply great. Arthur wanted more. After a few more swallows, he noticed that he fell less hard.

If the great feeling wasn’t motivation enough, then this was. As soon as he had a feeling in his lips again, he pouted and sucked. Firstly weak, but when his strength kept returning, harder and harder.

He wasn’t falling anymore, he was floating. He flew around in an happy bliss while exploring every single one of the emotions that were gifted to him. He went into the deep parts, the scenes he saw were sometimes sad and cruel, other times they were happy. Arthur didn’t care what it was, he just wanted MORE. He wanted to explore every single thing that was gifted to him and bath himself in knowledge.

But suddenly, the feeling drew away. No, no, no, no! That couldn’t happen. Arthur wanted MORE. His arms reacted on instinct and soon he drew the source of the feelings back to his mouth again. They started pulling, trying to get away, but Arthur wouldn’t let them. After a while the steady flow wasn’t enough anymore, Arthur wanted more and he wanted it fast. So he once again handled on instinct and pushed his fangs forward, widening the opening.

They stopped trying to get away. Good. They must have understood that Arthur was the boss and they were to obey. So Arthur sucked even harder, wanting more and more and more. He floated upwards and if felt amazing. The more he drank, the more his body started to function, he had already opened his eyes but looked through a red mist.

Arthur felt like he was in heaven. That is, until he got his sense of hearing back.

“Arthur stop!”

“Arthur! Merlin!”

“Get the hell away, princess!”

“Please Arthur, stop!”

“ARTHUR!”

And finally, FINALLY, he got more presence of mind and realized that they were talking to him. And that he was doing something wrong, something very wrong if the panic in their voices was anything to go by. With his wound fully healed and his hunger satisfied, he more and more realized what was going on. He was laying on the ground, holding something and drinking. What was he drinking?

Oh, right, blood.

Wait. _what?!_

With a shock, the red mist of his vision disappeared and he saw, _really_ saw, what was going on, what he was doing.

With a scream of disgust and terror he released the thing he was holding, the arm. He scrambled away, into the far corner of his cell. Away from the person he just so monstrous attacked, away from ... from ... Merlin?

No, no, no, _no, NO_!

Arthur squeezed his eyes shut, trying to forget the image of Merlin laying bleeding and unmoving because of him. He knew he was never going to forget this. A lot of nightmares would contain this very image. Arthur very carefully opened his eyes again, hoping without hope that it was all just a nasty dream. It wasn’t.

Merlin lay half on his side, half on his front, the bars separating them keeping him up.  His arm lay in Arthur’s cell, a puddle of blood appearing underneath it. He looked even worse than yesterday. His skin looked like porcelain, his lips were bluer than ever and the bags under his eyes were gigantic. In contradiction to yesterday, he wasn’t trembling. Instead he lay completely still. Arthur preferred it when he was trembling.

Arthur kept staring for awhile, completely in shock. Unconsciously he noticed how the knights were talking through each other, making a lot of noise. But he didn’t hear anything they said, all his attention was on his friend, his _brother,_ who had just so selflessly given him blood and saved his life. How could he ever have thought Merlin was even a single inch evil. There was no evil bone in that body. And Arthur had let his prejudice blind him for that obvious fact. The truth was so simple: Merlin has magic, Merlin isn’t evil, not all magic was evil. But instead of admitting that he had been wrong he let his pride get in the way and gave Merlin the cold shoulder (something the boy definitely noticed, which Arthur knew since he just invaded the boy’s privacy on the worst way possible), causing Merlin to doubt, not Arthur, but himself. Merlin had believed he had done something wrong. But he didn’t, Arthur had. And now the boy who was like a brother to him lay unconscious on the ground after performing another ridiculous act of loyalty.

“EVERYBODY SHUT UP”

The knights, who had still been talking through each other, which had caused them to fight (with words, they were still in different cells), were shocked into silence when Leon so uncharacteristic screamed. It was such a weird and rare occasion it even threw Arthur out of his shock.

His second in command turned to Arthur, and for the first time the prince felt a wave of fear going through him at the sight of his knight. But then Leon’s face softened and when he spoke his voice was full of concern.

“Arthur, I get that you are shocked. But you have to pull yourself out of it. Merlin is still bleeding and he needs your help. You have to bind the wound.”

Arthur felt his cheeks reddening in shame when he realized that his tardiness caused Merlin more discomfort. He rushed himself to Merlin’s side and lifted his wrist. It was so cold. For one terrifying moment Arthur didn’t feel a pulse, but then there was a weak beat and he sighed in relief. He didn’t waste any time and quickly ripped a strip cloth of his shirt and bandaged Merlin’s wrist.

When he was done, Arthur carefully lowered his brother onto his back. Merlin didn’t wake up. Not that Arthur expected him to, but he was still disappointed. Arthur raised his hand and swept the dirty and clammy bangs out of Merlin’s eyes. He knew he was being uncharacteristic affectionate and right in front of his knights no less, but honestly, he didn’t care. Merlin was like a little brother to him. It took a long time for him to realize that, but now he had and he was going to make Merlin feel appreciated. God knows that was the least he could do for the boy.

Arthur relaxed a bit. Merlin was in pretty bad shape, but if given rest and good care for his wounds, he would recuperate completely. Arthur was sure of this, he could feel it through his, now considerably increased, bond with the boy.

“Aaahw.”

Goddamn, Gwaine was really good in ruining everything. Although Arthur had to admit he laughed with the knights when Gwaine started to coo in a high pitched voice that reminded him remarkably of Gwen.

Suddenly he heard footsteps, coming this way. He quickly walked away from Merlin and went to stand on the other side of the cage. He was okay with the knights knowing he cared for Merlin, but he would rather not have his enemy knowing it.

The door opened, and the vampire walked through. He carried a box with him, there were probably torture instruments inside. Arthur straightened himself. He didn’t care what the vampire was going to do to him. He wouldn’t betray his country, no matter what!

The vampire stopped in front of Arthur’s cage and the prince send him his most defiant look. The vampire just smirked. But instead of opening the cage he walked further, until he stood for Merlin’s.

An icy dread filled Arthur’s stomach as the vampire opened the cage and walked straight to the unconscious and defenseless boy.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zanobi was rather pissed off. It had taken ages to find what he had been looking for, long enough that he was now recovered completely. What if the magic cretin had woken already? The cells were easy to open with magic and Zanobi didn’t fancy a manhunt, too much time and energy. But now, at least, he had found what he was looking for. He carefully opened the box which he had been looking for. Inside were a pair of manacles, joined by a chain. They were black, with red runes engraved in them. They were exactly what he needed. It was time to teach that little warlock who was really the boss around here.

For not only had he tried to thwart his plan, killed his man, hurt him and did serious damage to his castle, the warlock also clearly didn’t know his place. Zanobi was an old vampire and he deserved respect. The warlock had given him no such things. How dare he?! He was a filthy thing, lowest on the food chain. He was the lowest of the lowest and he should bow at Zanobi’s feet, offering himself to his master. That was how it was supposed to be! He was supposed to come to him freely, glad that Zanobi could end his miserable life! The only thing useful about warlocks was that they tasted amazing and therefor they should come to him, one of the last vampires, and offer themselves. They should be honored to be allowed to feed such an amazing creature as himself. Warlocks belonged to vampires! Every vampire knew that! Yet the cretin had defied him. He would sure as hell pay for that.

Smirking, Zanobi walked to the dungeons. It was time to claim his birthright!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *pokes head around corner* Ah hey guys. Your not mad at me, are you? *Gets stones thrown at head.* *yelps and dissapears around the corner*  
> So I am really sorry that I'm late. You must know that every chapter before this was written either in my testweek or in my holliday. Which meant that I either didn't had time but was looking for a excuse to procastinate learning, or I had a lot of time to write. When normal school started again, that changed drastically, resulting in this chapter being so late and so short. I do have a vacation this week and the beginning of a testweek next week so I suspect that i'll have finished another chapter next week. Just know that updating might take a while but I will never abandon the story.  
> AO3 user shalingu found the correct definition of the name Zanobi, which means 'barely alive'. Although the kolis10 also found something interesting that I didn't knew but found hilarious anyway. They found out that there was a saint calledZenobius wo was praised for miracles including bringing people back from the dead. AO3 user Reira said it meant 'created by Zeus' which I loved because I am a mythology nerd.  
> I also have a beta now. Her username is huchamabacha and she is amazing. Make sure to give her some credit too. I love working with her.  
> Anyway, enjoy the chapter! and see you next time

Arthur had to give everything to not run to Merlin’s side the moment the vampire knelt by his head and carefully put the box on the ground next to him. He looked a little puzzled at Merlin. The silence was so thick it nearly suffocated Arthur, it was the vampire who broke it, still looking at Merlin.

“I had expected you to have awakened by now. Ah well, easier for me I suppose.”

The vampire put his hands on either side of Merlin’s face and held it painfully tight. Arthur clenched and unclenched his hands, in an attempt to keep from running to them and ripping those hands of his brother. But if he would do that, he would give the vampire even more advantage and he wasn’t ready to do that.

“Well lets see how strong you are.”

The vampire’s eyes flashed red. A shocked look appeared on his face as he stared into the distance. His hands on Merlin’s head tightened more and more. It was clear to see on the boy’s face that he was hurting. When he let out a soft whimper, it became too much for Arthur. He rushed forward, barely able to stop himself before he ripped the vampire’s hands of his brother’s face, afraid that the vampire would consider that a step too far. It wasn’t necessary anyway. The vampire shut his eyes and his grip on Merlin’s face relaxed. When he opened his eyes again, they were once more black.

He staggered away from Merlin, his face full of awe and confusion. “So much magic. So much magic.” he muttered. His face transformed in a mask of hatred. “That much magic and he uses it to protect a PENDRAGON?!” The vampire stood up and slowly walked back to the boy. “All that power and he does NOTHING! He lives as a servant, letting all that power waste away. He doesn’t deserve it, any of it!” At this point, he had reached Merlin and knelt down again. He grasped the boy’’s face and started to study it. “Why?” he mumbled “Why does such a simple mortal have that amount of magic?” A strange expression that Arthur couldn’t exactly name appeared on his face. “Of course, why else but to feed me?”

That _really_ scared the shit out of Arthur.

As he watched, a hungry expression came on the vampire’s face. He opened his mouth, large fangs very visible and raised Merlin’s head of the ground, exposing his still bandaged neck. Arthur realized he had to do something, he couldn’t let this happen. So he put up his best disbelieving face and used his best I-am-the-prince-so-I-am-right voice.

“Merlin, has magic? He can’t even clean a room properly, there is no way he has magic. I already knew you were stupid, but not that stupid.”

In his mind, Arthur sent apologies to his brother. But at least it got the attention of the vampire. He stood up, dropping Merlin’s head like it was nothing. Arthur winced when he heard the loud bang when his brother’s head hit the floor. Unfortunately, this didn’t go unnoticed by the vampire. They stood very close now, only the bars separating them. They looked into each other’s eyes for a moment, until the vampire broke the moment with a loud laugh.

“You care about him. You actually _care_ about him!”

The vampire calmed down a little now and started to assess Arthur with his eyes.

“You’ll have to get over those petty feelings of course. Don’t worry, a few days of my training and you’ll open your eyes. We’ll make a real vampire out of you yet. You’ll forget the boy in no time”

“Never!” Arthur said through gritted teeth.

This was apparently the wrong thing to say, for the vampire’s face turned thunderous. With inhuman speed, he grasped Arthur’s collar and pressed him against the bars. Their faces were centimeters apart now. Black eyes stared intently into blue ones. Until the vampire broke the silence.

“I see. His magic is running through your veins, fighting the effects of my blood, trying to turn you normal again. That’s not going to happen. I have allowed this cretin to disturb my plans for too long now. I will take him as my birthright and when he dies, so will the magic within you that’s slowly turning you human.”

The vampire smiled an insane smile then. “But first I’ll make him suffer.”

He stepped away then and smirked at the horrified looks on the faces of Arthur and the knights. “Lesson number one, always listen to your maker, he is always right and you will always do as he says. Lesson number two, don’t get attached to things, especially not humans. They are not worthy of a vampire’s attention.” His face darkened then as he looked at all the knights in turn. “Lesson number three, warlocks are nature’s gift to vampires. As the eldest and as your maker I demand that any found warlocks are to be brought to me so I can take what is my right. Do not defy me on this.” He stared right at Arthur then “A few minutes in my care and you have already broken those rules. You’ll be punished for it obviously, but you’ll have to wait. I have something ... more pressing to take care of first.” He added the last with a hungry look at Merlin, who was still unconscious.

“Don’t you dare! Don’t you FUCKING dare!”

The vampire ignored Gwaine in favor of sitting next to Merlin’s head. He picked up the box he had taken with him, put it on his lap and opened the lid. Arthur couldn’t see what was inside but the vampire’s smirk told him it could be nothing good. His blood ran cold when the vampire raised his hands, in them a pair of black manacles with red engravings. Wrongness was flowing off the thing. Arthur could feel the part of Merlin in him whimpering and begging him to move away from it. Even Merlin, who was still in a poison-induced unconsciousness, reacted. His brow creased and he looked pained. He whimpered while he unconsciously shifted his head away from the manacles.

Arthur couldn’t speak, only stare in horror when the vampire placed both Merlin’s wrists in the shackles and then shut them both closed with an audible ‘click’.

The reaction was immediate. A red light emanated from where the two sides joined. Merlin, who shouldn’t be able to react to anything, shot up with a scream so horrible it was barely human leaving his lips. His eyes flew open, bright gold and full of pain. He sat there for a moment, screaming and tearing Arthur’s heart to pieces. Arthur could feel through their connection just how much this was hurting Merlin. He didn’t hurt himself but he mights as well could have. The knowledge of exactly how much pain his brother was going through, was almost as horrible as feeling the pain himself.

As the gold in Merlin’s eyes began to fade, so did the red light emanating from the manacles. When it had disappeared completely Arthur noticed to his shock that the two ends had melted neatly together until it was impossible to tell where one side had ended and the other began. It was now one piece of metal.

When the light faded, so did Merlin’s screams. But when his eyes turned normal again, the pained expression didn’t leave. Instead, Merlin sagged in on himself, hugging his legs to his chest and letting out small sobs. He didn’t seem to be aware of his surroundings, trapped in his own world of pain as he was. His small sobs and whimpers broke what was left of Arthur’s heart and he found himself fighting to keep his tears at bay.

“Yeah, I imagine that hurts”

A wave of pure unadulterated hate rushed through Arthur. How dare that monster do something so cruel to Merlin and then talk so casually about it. He felt a low growl escape his throat and it took everything in him to not give in to the anger and rip that vampire’s head of his neck, bars be damned. But he could not. No matter how angry he was, he couldn’t just rip iron apart. And the vampire was far stronger than him.

The vampire looked at him and laughed.

“Oh god, look at you! The mighty prince of Camelot angry over the fate of his warlock-servant. He really has you under his spell, hasn’t he?”

Something maniacal came into his eyes when he looked at Arthur’s broken face. When he talked, he talked like Morgana did when she gloated to Uther. Or like when Nimueh did in that cave so many years ago, sure that she was about to kill the son of her greatest enemy. And Arthur just knew that tone meant somebody he cared for was going to get seriously hurt. He hated it with all his might.

“You know, I am very old, even for a vampire. I have seen empire’s rise and fall, seen entire communities destroyed. When you are as old as me you have a lot of time to learn about yourself. Did you know, for instance, that it is possible to change the contents of the poison in your fangs?”

Arthur was surprised. No, he hadn’t known that.

“It takes a while but if you ingest the ingredients yourself you can use them to change the poison. I have mastered this art.”

The vampire’s grin grew and he stepped a little closer to Arthur. The prince knew he was now going to hear what he so much dreaded, the thing that made the vampire’s voice have that tone that Arthur hated so much.

“Instead of giving our little warlock here a painless slumber, I have changed the poison so that it provides neither a slumber nor a painless experience. Instead, it forces our boy to be awake the entire time, till the very last droplet of blood has left him. And not only will he endure the pain of his blood slowly being drained from him, the poison also is designed to cause an additional excruciating pain. Combine that with the pain of your soul slowly being ripped in two that the manacles cause and I think I will hear an impressive concert of screaming in a few moments. Oh, I do love hearing them screaming. And he can’t even pass out or die before I decide so, the magic in my poison keeping him alive.”

The vampire was inches away from Arthur, who was too shocked and horrified to move. He moved a little closer till his lips were next to the prince’s ears as he whispered.

“I wonder if he will scream your name.”

Arthur barely noticed the vampire turning away, a huge smirk on his face. He didn’t notice him tossing a whimpering Merlin over his shoulder like it was nothing, nor the knights’ screams to leave the servant alone. When the vampire reached the door he turned around one last time, that goddamn smirk still on his face, and said something. Arthur didn’t understand it at the moment, due to him being in some sort of shock. Later when it was all over he would realize that the vampire had told him his name.

At the moment, though, he was still in the shock Zanobi had caused. So he missed the door slamming close, he missed the knights keeping screaming at it anyway, stopping one by one when they all faced the fact that it was hopeless. In the end, it was only Gwaine who kept screaming and kicking the bars until even he gave up and slid to the floor. Not crying - knights didn’t cry - but something suspiciously close.

Not even that got Arthur out of his shock.

But then the screaming started, so loud they could even hear it down there in their dungeon. So full of pain it threw Arthur right out of his shock while he realized that the vampire - Zanobi - had been right.

Merlin did scream his name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah, I know, short chapter. But I kinda liked the ending. See you next time!


	12. chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys,  
> So I know it has been terrible long and I profusely apologise for that. There was a lot of personal stuff going on that demanded my priority. On top of that I had a huge writers block. Truth is I'm not sure how long the next chapter is going to take. I have a lot to do and on top of that I'm not allowed to use my dominant hand for a while. I can't tell you how long it will take but I can tell you that it will come. I have told myself that I'm not allowed to write anything else till this beast is finished and I intend to keep to that. So yeah it will take a while but it WILL come. Enjoy this chapter cause you waited quite a while for it.  
> P.S.: this chapter hasn't been beta'ed since my normal beta was really busy and I didn't want to let you lot wait any longer

In the beginning, Arthur had screamed. He had kicked and hit the bars and wall in a futile attempt to maybe break out or at least get rid of the frustration. It didn’t work and eventually he gave up. That’s how he ended up where he was now, with his back against the wall, his knees to his chest, trying to ignore the stinging in his hands and feet and, of course, Merlin’s screaming. 

The screaming didn’t stop and it was agonizing. Somehow, Merlin managed to make every scream sound more horrible and full of pain than the laste. Sometimes Merlin would replace the normal screams for a special one. It was this one that shredded Arthur’s heart to pieces time and time again. It was full of pleading of hope, like the boy was holding onto the last straw of sanity, it begged for rescue, to make the pain stop. It was this scream, that hurt so much to Arthur, because no matter how hard Merlin screamed his name, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t help his brother. And Merlin’s screams for his best friend always stayed unanswered. 

These screams became less and less frequent, when Merlin became less and less coherent. 

But even when Merlin was not able to scream anything specific anymore, his mind kept pressing onto Arthur’s, begging his brother to make it stop. Arthur tried to reach out to comfort him, and although his presence seemed to reassure Merlin a little, it wasn’t nearly enough to distract him from the pain. Arthur had never felt so helpless before as he did now. 

He turned to look in the eyes of his second in command, holding on to so ridiculous hope that maybe Leon - smart, calm and calculating Leon - had come up with a plan to get them all out. Instead his gold mottled eyes looked just as desperate and hopeless as he himself felt. 

Arthur closed his eyes as another wave of Merlin’s magic crashed into him, not that it hurt, it was quite pleasant actually, but it reminded him once again why Merlin was forced to push his magic out of his own body into that of Arthur and the knights. 

As soon as the screaming had started, so had the flow of magic, making all their eyes speckled with gold. When Arthur got over the blinding rage that had him kicking and hitting the walls and bars, he got confused as to why Merlin was sending them his magic. Almost immediately he realized why his friend was doing what he did and part of him was very happy that Merlin was preventing the vampire from taking his magic and forming one the same bond between the two as he and Arthur now shared. But there was also a part of him, how disgusted of it he might be, that recoiled from having magic pulsing through his body. It wasn’t that he still believed magic was evil, a trip down Merlin’s memories was enough to convince him otherwise. But to have it himself, to have it pulsing and flowing through his body like it was a living creature, that was entirely something else. The fact that Merlin seemed to feel only more miserable without his magic didn’t help one bit. 

Anyway, there were more pressing matters at hand. 

The prince opened his eyes again and looked at all his knights. They all looked miserable, but yet there was still hope in their eyes when they stared right back at him, like they were waiting for something. The prince realized that they were waiting for him to take lead and come up with a plan to get them out of there so they could rescue Merlin. He swallowed nervously, he was letting them down. Them and Merlin. He was letting Merlin down. The only person of who Arthur knew for certain that they would always be there for him, now needed his help. And he could do nothing to help him. He felt the magic run through him, carrying the knowledge of the pain his friend was going through. He sent a mental message to his brother (which was a slightly weird experience) 

 _I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I can’t help you, can’t save you. I’m sorry that the magic you’re so desperately trying to protect will probably end up in that monsters hand one way or another. I’m sorry I can’t rid the kingdom of this vile creature, that I can’t revenge the people who died, that I can’t do what is right. I’m sorry, my friend, that all your work is in vain because it looks like i’m going to die here and end up as a puppet for that monster. I’m sorry I can’t protect Camelot and that I will be the cause of her destruction._  

 _I’m sorry I’m not the man you always believed me to be, the man who would become this great king. I’m sorry to disappoint you._  

 _But above all I’m sorry that you are up there, screaming and fighting for your life, only because you wanted to protect me. And I’m in here, not doing anything to help you, because I can’t. I’m sorry that I wasn’t strong enough to protect the one person who mattered the most. But I tried everything, I did._  

 _Did I?_  

Arthur frowned. He tried everything, didn’t he? Yet, there still was this feeling that he forgot something, that he had been staring the answer in the eye all this time. One glance to his knights, who were still looking at him like he was going to get them out of there and his resolve strengthened. He was going to get them out of here and then they would save Merlin, kill the vampire and bring his ridiculous manservant back home to Gaius before any more harm could come to him. He stood up and began to pace, a steely resolve noticeable in his steps. The knights realized that something was going to happen and all stood too. Waiting in anticipation. 

The warrior in Arthur took things over and tried to make a plan. First things first. How to get out of there? He began to make a mental list of everything he got to his disposal. He looked around. There were five anxious knights, ready for his command. They were tired but adrenaline should get them through and the hunger hadn’t played up yet, so that was good. At least, it hadn’t for Arthur, about the other kn- No! Focus! What else did he got? Uhm ... He got his clothes. But that was about it. 

Damn it. He was _sure_ he was overlooking something. Normally Merlin would now laugh, say he was an idiot and point out what it was that he forgot. Because that was what Merlin did, he completed Arthur. He send a silent question to Merlin's conscience, hoping without hope. But of course, the boy didn’t reacted, he just kept sending his magic. 

Wait. Oh. _Oh._ Magic. 

Arthur licked his lips. Was he really going to do this? He didn’t have to listen for even a second to Merlin’s screaming, before he decided: Yes, he was going to do this. But, how? It was clear that it was him that had to do it, after all, he had had the most blood, and had therefor a bigger mental bond with Merlin than the rest, and as a result from that, he received the most magic. It had the most chance of working if he did it. He walked to the lock of his cell and putted his hands on it. One problem: 

He had never done any magic before. 

He had no idea how to do it. But honestly, how hard could it be. He closed his eyes and concentrated, hoping that it would be enough. It wasn’t. Arthur cursed. He didn’t knew any spells or anything so he had literally no idea of what to do. Wasn’t there some sort of manual to this kind of things? How did beginning magic users do that? There had to be someone or something to tell them what to do. 

But no, Merlin had to do it all on his own. He was so powerful that he didn’t had any problems with doing magic but with _refraining_ from doing magic. That same magic was running through Arthur’s veins now and if Merlin could do it, then so could Arthur. He didn’t close his eyes this time. Instead, he watched the lock and focussed with all his might on opening it. He reached inside himself and tried to coax the magic forward, and when that didn’t work, he _commanded_ it. The magic seemed to resist being used, but Arthur wouldn’t give up. Soon, his hands started to tingle with energy. He send it all to the locks. 

 _Klick!_ It was open. He did it! He opened the lock! 

He used magic. Dear gods above, he used magic! If his father could see him now... No! Don’t think of that. There are more important things to do. 

Enjoying the knights gobsmacked faces when he casually opened the door and walked out of his cell, for example. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Arthur soon had freed all of the knights and they now walked to one of the heavy wooden door at the end of the hall. When he opened it he came in a small room with a table and two chairs. This was probably where the guards would have been, were they still alive. 

Step two: weapons. 

Arthur walked toward the table. With a few well aimed kicks the table leg broke, providing Arthur with a square piece of wood with a ragged end. It was far from ideal, but it would have to do, they didn’t had any time to search for real weapons. The knights followed his example and soon they all had a ragged piece of wood, plus a legless table  and chair. Arthur’s stomach tightened when he thought of facing Zanobi, weakened, with only a piece of wood as a weapon. When even full armored and with the best swords of the kingdom, they didn’t came even close to beating him. But it was not like they had a choice, they couldn’t leave Merlin here. And the bastard was also still a danger to the citizens of Camelot. 

When they all had a ‘weapon’, they hurried through the doors into the halls. All castles were labyrinths, designed that way to confuse the enemy. Even Arthur didn’t know all the secret passageways of Camelot’s castle. The fort of the vampire (Arthur refused to grace him with a name. Monsters didn’t deserve names) was no different, but they had the advantage that they knew exactly where Merlin was, and they let that feeling guide them. The change that they would meet somebody on their way was slim to none, given that only the vampire survived Merlin’s attack en he was probably with the boy right now. So they didn’t spent any effort in being quiet but sprinted down the halls. 

The closer they got, the more horrid and loud Merlin’s screams became. Until suddenly, when the knights were only a few halls away of their friend, the screaming stopped. It was so abrupt that they all came to a halt, too shocked to remember how to move. An icy dread filled Arthur’s stomach and he looked at his knights. They all looked at each other for a second before sprinting down the halls again, even faster than before.

Because a screaming Merlin might be horrible, but a silent one was far worse. 

Arthur’s mind wouldn’t work properly anymore, all he thought was, _please be okay, please PLEASE be okay_. But deep inside the prince knew that this could never be the case. He could already feel his friend fading away from him. He started to panic and spurted his legs to run even faster, faster than he had ever ran, while he desperately tried to grasp his friend, to hold on. But the closer they got, the further away Merlin seemed to be. 

At last, they turned the last corner into a long hallway. At the end of the hallway were two massive dark wooden doors, of which Arthur just _knew_ Merlin was behind. They were now close enough to hear the vampire yelling. 

“Why won’t you just _give me what I want?!”_ After this they heard a yell of frustration and something wooden crashing. 

Lancelot was there first. He ran forward and into the door with such a speed that he was just a blur passing by. The door creaked and the lock broke, causing the noble knight to barrel inside, run across the room and crash in the opposite wall, where he lay dazed and in pain on the floor, nursing an obvious dislocated and maybe broken shoulder. The rest were quick to follow the common-born knight. 

Arthur came in and quickly took in his surroundings. Being trained as he was it took him only seconds to take everything in. The door they came through was led to the corner of a bare room with no windows. In the opposite corner, close to where Lancelot was sitting dazed on the ground, was a table. Arthur felt sick at the sight of all the torture instruments on it. The only thing soothing his aching heart a bit was that it looked like most of them weren’t used recently. His gaze went through the rest of the room, taking in the chair, then the vampire, who looked torn between seething in anger and freezing in surprise, he held a broken piece of wood in his hands. Arthur’s brain immediately recognized the wood as of the same kind as the chair behind the vampire. Finally, he couldn’t avoid it anymore and with trepidation he lifted his eyes to where he was sure his friend must be. 

His breath caught in his throat. 

The shackles around his friends wrist were thrown over a hook in the ceiling. Merlin hung limply, his toes barely scraping the floor, his head laying on his chest. He looked unconscious, but Arthur knew better than that. In no time, his eyes flew over the body of his friend, taking in every injury and cataloging it to memory.  

Merlin had lost his jacket, shirt and trademark neckerchief, leaving a very clear sight of the black bruises that were marring his torso. His trousers were torn above the knee, showing Arthur that even his legs hadn’t been spared the beating his friend obviously had gotten. Above that, Merlin had clearly broken at least three ribs, a wrist and heavily dislocated a shoulder, all of which were at his right side. A little bit of dried up blood was visible under the improvised bandage around his wrist, which had clearly suffered from bearing all Merlin’s weight, but wasn’t bleeding anymore. It was the only wound that had bled, except, of course, for the bite marks on his neck. Merlin was paler than most of the corpses Arthur had seen. All in all, he looked like a beaten, broken ghost. 

Suddenly Arthur noticed the broken pieces of wood on the floor around his friend and realized with a shock that the vampire had thrown a chair at the boy. That would explain the broken wrist and dislocated shoulder. 

Arthur felt a rage fill him bigger than any he had ever felt before. The rage he felt when he thought his father had killed his mother didn’t even hold a candle to it. He turned to the vampire, who by now had recovered from his shock, and with a battle cry, he charged.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, that happened.  
> I'm starting to feel really sorry for Merlin, maybe I should lay off him for a while.  
> But then again, where's the fun in that?  
> Till next time my friends!


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOOOOOW it has been a long time! Sorry for that. I do have my reasons but I won't bore you with them. Suffient to say that I have been extremely busy the last year but the biggest reason that it took me so long is that I kinda lost interest in this story. However, I don't want to be that person who never finishes their stories and I promised htat I would finish this one so here you go, the newest chapter. It was a pain in the ass to write but luckily it will be one of the last ones. This story is nearning an end. Anyway I hope you enjoy it and as always I would like to mention my amazing beta who, despite my late chapters, always reads through them and tells me what cann go better. Her username is huchamabacha and if you want to thank someone for the decrease in grammar mistakes, then she is the person to go to

  
Arthur’s broken table leg hit the part of the chair the vampire was holding up in defense with such a force that both pieces creaked with protest and almost broke, were it not for Zanobi’s quick reaction to the attack. He kicked Arthur hard in the stomach, sending the prince a few meters away from him, where he fell to the ground. He laid there for a moment, a bit dazed. The vampire snapped his wood into two pieces and was just in time to stop an attack from Gwaine and Elyan. He had both of them pushed away in no time, but they were immediately replaced by Leon and Percival. Gwaine and Elyan were already getting to their feet but they wouldn’t be fast enough to replace Leon and Percival, since one of them had already been knocked to the floor, while the other would son follow. Lancelot was getting up from his place on the floor but Arthur knew that he wouldn’t be much help.  
  
Too fast, it was all just going too fast.  
  
He had barely thought this when a strange familiar feeling swept over him. Suddenly everything stopped. The vampire had his foot raised and was kicking Percival away, yet both had completely stopped in their movement. Gwaine was halfway off the ground, held still in a position no man could possibly hold for long. But the most unsettling thing was the complete silence that hung in the room. Gone were the sound of battle and fighting. The silence was so complete that it was deafening. The only sound that existed in this lonely and silent world was the sound of his own ragged breathing. And Merlin’s. Arthur realized that while everything was frozen Merlin wasn’t. This reassured Arthur as for a moment he had feared he had locked himself up in a world in which time stood still. That was what the magic inside him had done: it had brought time to a standstill. Arthur had accidentally stopped time - stopped time! Holy gods he stopped time! - yet he was strangely calm: Merlin was with him and Merlin could fix this. Which meant that Arthur could stop freaking out and could start thinking about the strategical advantage of this.  
  
The warrior in Arthur awoke and he broke the piece of wood completely. One end had a long stake of a sort on it now. Good, he could use that to stab the creature. Arthur realized that he could just walk up to the vampire and stab him. The creature wouldn’t be able to put up a fight. However, everything in his being resisted this dishonorable act. Despite that, he couldn’t really contemplate anything else when the sound of Merlin’s almost nonexistent breathing, and the pain his little brother was still going through, came to the front of his mind. A white-hot rage swept over him till it was almost all he could see. And suddenly he didn’t care about honor anymore, not in the face of the vampire, the monster that had caused so much grief to so many people. To Merlin, to his men, to his people and to the countless other unfortunates that had fallen as its prey. In the face of a creature so strong and yet so morally wrong, honor didn’t matter anymore. The only thing that mattered was that the creature died and that his people, and above all Merlin, were safe. So instead of doing the honorable thing, which would surely have meant they lost, he ran forward, ducked under Percival’s falling body and thrust the wooden stake right where the heart of the beast was supposed to be.  
  
As soon as the stake touched the vampire, time started moving again. Yet by that time it was far too late for even the vampire to do anything to protect himself. While Percival smacked to the ground in what sounded like an earthquake to Arthur’s ears, the prince drove a piece of wood the size of his foot in the heart of a beast he detested more than anything.  
  
Arthur didn’t know what he expected. Maybe it was a gigantic fiery explosion or a bloodcurdling scream before Zanobi turned to ash. Just anything sufficiently impressive and horrible to fit such a creature. None of that happened.  
  
Everything was silent for a second while the vampire looked surprised at the piece of wood in his chest. Zanobi slowly looked up and locked eyes with Arthur, surprise filling his black eyes. The prince was then witness to the spark leaving them, leaving empty eye-sockets, while the once-monster crumpled to the ground in a miserable pile. In the end, the vampire died the ordinary death of a mortal. The prince didn’t spend much time pondering the irony, but went immediately over to his friend. Together with Gwaine, he carefully lifted the shackles from the hook and lowered his little brother to the ground.  
  
“Merlin?” He fearfully asked. But the boy didn’t answer. His eyes were open but sluggish and glazed over, like he wasn’t actually seeing anything. When Arthur prodded the sense of Merlin in his mind it had the same effect as Gwaine had on prodding the boy’s face: no reaction. He must be too far gone.  
  
While this shouldn’t have surprise him, this revelation still shocked Arthur enough to snap out of it and to do something. A quick inspection of the manacles showed that they were still melted together and that there wasn’t anything Arthur could do about it. So he did the only thing he could. He took of his cloak and carefully wrapped the boy into it. When he lifted Merlin up he took great care to touch his wounded shoulder as little as possible. But there was no time left to be careful. Merlin was fading and needed to be brought to Gaius _right now_. So as soon as Merlin was secured exactly where he was meant to be, Arthur took off at a running speed to where he hoped the way out was, knowing that his knights would follow.  
  
In the end it wasn’t Arthur that led them out, but Leon. The noble knight ran straight forward saying he knew where the stables are. In response to the puzzled glances he just shrugged and said he sensed the life of their horses. They didn’t question it.  
  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
They rode for what felt like hours. Riding at a constant gallop brought a big risk of injuring one of the horses. Plus it was very uncomfortable. But the life fading from the boy secured tightly in front of him told Arthur that they had to take this risk. They couldn’t afford to go any slower. Merlin was leaning heavily with his left side against Arthur’s chest, secured by the arm that kept him up and the robes that tied him to the horse. Arthur wasn’t under any delusions. He knew that the only reason that his friend was still alive was that the venom of the vampire was still running through what was left of his blood. He also knew that it was fading and so was the boy’s life.  
  
“Arthur!”  
  
The prince in question ignored the knight but Gwaine wouldn’t be deterred.  
  
“Oi! Princess!”  
  
Arthur spurred his horse on. He didn’t need a psychic connection to the fun-loving knight to know what he was going to say. He didn’t want to hear it. But Gwaine just spurred his horse on too and before the prince knew it the man jumped in front of his horse.  
  
Arthur’s horse clattered to a stop with great difficulty and just in time to avoid a crash with Gwaine’s horse. The furious king looked at the sad yet determined knight. He was wasting time! Precious time that Merlin didn’t have. Arthur opened his mouth, ready to tell the bastard just what he thought of that but Gwaine spoke first. And when he did the defeated tone surprised Arthur so much that he snapped his mouth shut.  
  
“He is dying Arthur. Stop denying it; you can feel it just as much as we can. You are not doing anybody any good, racing off like that.”  
  
Arthur was about to protest but Gwaine wouldn’t let him. He screamed and Arthur was surprised to see tears in the eyes of the normally so tough knight.”  
  
“NO! Stop denying it, Arthur. Do you think you are doing Merlin any favors right now? Merlin might be a great man but he is still a man, a mortal. And he deserves better than to die while on a mad chase strapped to a galloping horse. If Merlin is going to die then he deserves full attention while it’s happening. He deserves to be surrounded by his friends, safe and happy.”  
  
Gwaine was full out crying now and Arthur realized that he was too. Because Gwaine was right - they all knew it. Merlin wouldn’t survive the trip to Gaius and even if he did, there was no way even the great physician could save him now.  
  
Merlin was dying and there was nothing anybody could do about it.  
  
The truth hit Arthur like a galloping horse and suddenly he found it incredibly hard to breathe. It took him a while to get his breathing under control but even then it felt like he was suffocating. Merlin, his little brother, was no longer for this world. Arthur was about to lose the person who was the closest and dearest to him and he didn’t know how he would ever move on.  
  
His knights dismounted and the movement managed to draw Arthur more or less out of his stupor. It felt like a dream when he saw Lancelot’s shaking hands untie Merlin from the horse but when Percival moved to take him over he shook himself fully awake. He drew his brother closer to his chest and shook his head at the gentle knight. He didn’t care how awkward it would be to dismount with Merlin in his arms, he wasn’t about to let go. He felt like if he let go of the young boy then Merlin would slip away completely and he was not ready for that.  
  
Gods he was not ready for this. He was not ready to say goodbye. He had lost so many already and yet he was so not ready to lose the one who had managed to break all his walls, who had managed to get through to him and bring the king out from under the selfish prat.  
  
He couldn’t lose his best and first friend. His brother in all but blood. It would feel like losing part of himself.  
  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Arthur’s world had narrowed down to himself and the boy in his arms. He barely noticed as Leon led them to a clearing close by.  
  
The clearing was filled with wildflowers and at the end there was a surprisingly familiar lake. Beautiful mountains ringed the edge of the lake and had he not been so devastated, Arthur would have stood still in awe of its beauty.  
  
It was a good place to die. Merlin would at least have that.  
  
Lancelot laid down his cape and Arthur finally put his brother down, with his head in the prince’s lap. Arthur carded his fingers through the Merlin’s hair and looked at the face of his friend.  
  
Merlin’s eyes were almost closed, open by only a tiny slit. It wouldn’t take long now. The rest of the knights sat down around the boy and each touched the boy in some way. Gwaine and Lancelot had claimed Merlin’s hands, Percival sat at his right shoulder and both Elyan and Leon put their hands on the boy’s knees.  
  
The movement had freed Merlin’s hands from Arthur’s cloak and the prince’s eyes were drawn to the manacles around the boy’s wrists  
  
    “ _Combine that with the pain of your soul slowly being ripped in two that the manacles cause_ ”  
  
That is what the monster had said. Arthur’s grief only intensified when he realized that even in his final moments, his little brother was still suffering. And there was nothing he could do about it. Gods he wished that he could just take off those manacles and give Merlin the peace that he deserved. But he had no idea how.  
  
And that is how the once and future king and his great knights of the round table found themselves surrounding the body of a lanky serving boy, all thinking about their happiest moments with the man and silently grieving while they waited for the last breath of their beloved friend.


End file.
